France is in negotiations to purchase Polish-made Piorun portable air-defence missile systems under the European Union's newly established SAFE defence financing programme, Defence24 reported on Monday. The deal, if concluded, would mark a striking reversal in the traditional direction of European arms trade—with Warsaw as the exporter and Paris as the buyer.
For a country that spent much of the post-war and post-communist decades seeking Western hardware and security guarantees, the symbolism is not lost on Polish defence analysts. In Poland, as across Central Europe, history is never far from the surface—and neither is the memory of occupation. The image of France procuring weapons in Poland rather than the other way around represents something more than a transaction. It is a marker of how thoroughly the continent's security map has been redrawn since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
<h2>What Is the Piorun?</h2>
The PPZR Piorun (Polish: Thunderbolt) is a man-portable air-defence system, or MANPADS, developed by Mesko in cooperation with CRW Telesystem-Mesko and the Military University of Technology. Designed to engage aircraft, helicopters, drones, and cruise missiles, the system operates at ranges of 400 metres to 6.5 kilometres and altitudes of roughly 10 to 4,000 metres. Its key battlefield advantage is enhanced jamming resistance—a feature that has proven decisive in Ukraine, where Polish-supplied Piorun units have contributed to that country's air-defence effort since the early months of the war. Ukraine's documented use of the system against Russian targets, including low-flying helicopters and Iranian-designed Shahed drones, has given the Piorun battlefield credibility that no manufacturer's brochure could replicate.
<h2>The EU SAFE Programme</h2>
The transaction is being structured through the SAFE programme—Support for Ukraine and Europe in Defence Spending—a European Commission instrument offering access to a €16.2 billion loan pool earmarked for joint European defence procurement. The programme is explicitly designed to encourage EU member states to buy from one another rather than defaulting to American suppliers, and Poland stands as its largest prospective beneficiary. The Piorun sale would be a textbook application of the mechanism: France drawing on SAFE credits to purchase from a Polish manufacturer, while Poland in turn uses its SAFE allocation in part on French equipment.
Dr. Aleksander Olech, editor-in-chief of Defence24, framed the deal in terms Warsaw has been eager to hear for years. <blockquote>"In SAFE we will cooperate with France. Since we are the largest beneficiary of the programme, we'll spend some funds on French equipment. Here the situation is reversed — Paris buys from Warsaw. This is the direction to follow — export more Polish weaponry abroad. Piorun is already a global product."</blockquote>
<h2>Approximately 70 Per Cent for French Forces</h2>
According to Defence24's reporting, roughly 70 per cent of the order would be allocated to French armed forces, with the remaining 30 per cent designated as military aid to Ukraine. Precise order volumes and a delivery timeline have not been disclosed; negotiations are ongoing. The split nonetheless underlines how intertwined European rearmament and Ukrainian support have become as a matter of procurement logic—buying for oneself and equipping Kyiv are no longer separate decisions.
The talks unfold against a broader backdrop of accelerating Polish defence spending. Warsaw has committed to spending four per cent of GDP on defence in 2025, the highest share in NATO, and has placed substantial orders for South Korean K2 tanks, American F-35 jets, and domestically produced artillery systems. The Piorun export to France adds a new dimension: Poland is no longer merely an importer racing to modernise, but a credible supplier capable of providing combat-tested air-defence technology to a founding EU member and permanent member of the UN Security Council.
Finalisation of the order is expected to be confirmed in the coming months, according to Warsaw sources familiar with the negotiations. The Polish defence industry, long operating in the shadow of larger Western European competitors, will be watching closely.
