Piorun (missile)

The Piorun, meaning thunderbolt, is a Polish man-portable air defence missile system designed to destroy low-flying aircraft, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles at altitudes from 10 meters to 4 kilometers. It is a modernization of the earlier Grom system, developed by the Mesko company in the 2010s, which in turn grew from Poland's licensed production of the Soviet Strela-2M. The missile homes on infrared radiation using a more sensitive cooled detector, resists decoys better than its predecessor and carries a laser proximity fuze with a fragmentation high-explosive warhead. The missile is 72 millimeters in diameter and about 1.6 meters long, and its quoted range runs from 400 meters to 6.5 kilometers. After testing problems with early rocket motors, the first launchers and missiles reached the Polish Army by early 2020, and the weapon also fires from the Poprad and Pilica mounts. Poland announced larger orders in March 2022 after the weapon was used in the war in Ukraine.