PZR Grom

PZR Grom is a Polish man-portable air-defence system, a shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile meant to engage low-flying helicopters and aircraft. Grom means thunder in Polish, and the full designation, Przeciwlotniczy Zestaw Rakietowy Grom, translates as anti-air rocket-propelled set. It grew out of the early 1990s, when Poland left the Soviet bloc and was refused a licence for the Soviet 9K38 Igla. Several Polish institutes and design bureaus then worked on an Igla-like design, and the first batch entered service in 1995 with some imported Russian parts that were replaced later by Polish-designed components. The system pairs a 72 mm missile with a single-use launcher, a reusable gripstock and a coolant and battery unit, and one soldier can operate it. Poland, Georgia, Indonesia and Lithuania are among its users, and Georgian forces were reported to have fired Grom missiles at Russian aircraft during the Russo-Georgian War. It was later improved into the Piorun.