WARSAW (Reuters) – Estonia on Wednesday signed a deal with Poland to purchase Piorun anti-aircraft missile systems, designed to target low-flying aircraft such as helicopters and drones.
“This is a historic moment…for our bilateral cooperation and for our cooperation in the defence field,” Estonia’s Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur said during a news conference in Poland.
“It’s very important for us, for the region, for the region of the Baltic sea and especially for the NATO Eastern flank.”
Mesko, the Polish defence technology company producing the Piorun system, will deliver 300 missiles and 100 launch mechanisms to Estonia, according to a Polish government news release.
The systems are already in use in Ukraine, while Poland’s army increased its supply of them earlier this year.
Poland’s Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak added that the Piorun systems would be delivered to Estonia at the beginning of next year.
(Reporting by Joanna Plucinska and Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska; Editing by Alex Richardson)
