The Norwegian Defence Materiel Company (NDMA) signed a contract with the Polish firm Mesko S.A. which is a part of the Polish Armaments Group, for Piorun man-portable air defence programs (MANPADS). The NOK 350 million ($35 million) contract was signed on November 29 in Oslo. The contract on behalf of Mesko S.A. was signed by the vice-president of the corporate, Przemyslaw Kowalczuk. The brand new weapons are for use by the Norwegian Military, with deliveries beginning as early as 2023. The brand new Piorun MANPADS will cowl the bottom stage, with the ability to fireplace heat-seeking missiles at drones, helicopters, and plane from floor stage as much as altitudes of 4,000 meters. NDMA plans to ship a number of new of air protection programs to the Norwegian Armed Forces to assist defend in opposition to air threats at numerous altitudes and ranges.

“Piorun will complement the Military’s new tactical air defenses and the Air Power’s NASAMS and F-35 fight plane. Together with different capabilities within the Norwegian Armed Forces, Piorun will function a deterrent to any future opponent who will now should take care of a variety of defensive programs. We subsequently contemplate this an necessary addition to our total capabilities,” Gro Jære, director common of the NDMA stated.

Commercial

“That is the primary time that Norway will function one of these air protection programs, and the Norwegian Armed Forces will subsequently obtain an necessary functionality that they’ve beforehand not had of their stock. That is additionally the primary time we now have signed a serious contract with Polish protection business, reflecting optimistic developments in Norwegian-Polish protection cooperation,” Norwegian minister of defence Bjørn Arild Gram stated.

Piorun Man-portable Air Defence Programs (MANPADS). (Photograph by Mesko S.A.)

The Piorun (which means “thunderbolt” in Polish) is a man-portable air-defense system of Polish manufacturing, designed to destroy low-flying plane, airplanes, helicopters and unmanned aerial automobiles. The set is a deep modernization of the PPZR Grom set, based mostly on the Soviet-made 9K38 Igla (SA-18 Grail), subsequently the second designation of the missile is Grom-M. As a part of the modernization, the effectiveness of the homing warhead was considerably improved by growing the sensitivity of detection, which elevated the gap at which the missile is ready to goal and hit the goal, elevated resistance to interference was obtained, a proximity fuze was used, an entry authorization system and the set for fireplace was tailored in evening circumstances. The system weighs slightly below 20 kilograms and has a variety of 6.5 km at altitudes of as much as 6 km.

Piorun has been in service with the Polish armed forces since 2017. That is the third export success for the system in a bit of over two months, as Estonia positioned a contract for 100 launchers and 300 missiles in September this yr. Undisclosed quantity ordered by the US Division of Protection.in 2022. The US Authorities order could finally quantity to a number of hundred MANPADS programs. Earlier than that, the US had additionally acquired a sure variety of the Polish Grom MANPADS, delivered in 2016 and 2018-2019. In 2022, Poland introduced the speedy provide of Ukraine with Pioruns throughout the 2021–2022 Russo-Ukrainian disaster. Throughout the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Armed Forces of Ukraine alleged that numerous Russian jet fighters (Su-34, Su-25) and helicopters (Mi-24, Ka-52) have been shot down with Piorun missiles.