Estonia signed a contract for the purchase of Polish-made Piorun man-portable air-defense systems.

The Ministry of Defense of Poland reported that the Minister of Defense of Poland, Mariusz Baszczak, participated in the signing process.

The Mesko defense technology company will supply sets of Polish-made man-portable air-defense systems for the Armed Forces of Estonia.

Piorun systems are designed to combat low-flying aircraft such as airplanes, helicopters, and drones.

The sides did not specify either the MANPADS quantity Estonia was going to purchase, or the cost of the deal.

However, Błaszczak recently stressed that this weapon has proven itself on the battlefield.

“It should be emphasized that these are the weapons that Poland handed over to Ukraine in the first days of Russian aggression and which are highly valued by our Ukrainian friends. Because Piorun is effective and modern,” the minister said.

Estonia will become the second of the Baltic states to operate the Polish MANPADS. In 2014, Lithuania purchased the first batch of Grom portable anti-aircraft missile systems.

Piorun MANPADS is a deeply modernized version of the Polish Grom missile system, which is produced by Mesko.

Within this upgrade, the sensitivity of the infrared homing device was quadrupled.

The man-portable air defense system has a warhead of 1.82 kg, and it is known to be able to hit targets at an altitude of up to 4000 m and a range of up to 6500 m.

In June 2022, the Ministry of Defense of Poland signed a contract to purchase the 3,500 missiles for this system.