Arms maker says interest in its weapons 'largely' driven by Ukrainians using them to fight Russians

• A Polish arms maker says customers are flocking to weapons systems used in Ukraine.
• An official said customer interest "largely stems" from their use in combat against Russia.

The flood of arms into Ukraine has helped the country not just stave off defeat but actually go on the offensive against a larger, more powerful adversary. Weapons makers say customers are noticing.

Speaking to Defense News at the start of an arms fair in London this week, an official with Poland's state-owned arms manufacturer, PGZ, said it was selling its version of a portable surface-to-air rocket launcher based, in part, on its performance against Russian forces in Ukraine.

"Our foreign customers tell us that their interest in this weapon largely stems from the fact that the Ukrainian military has had significant success with using it to combat Russia's invasion," Patryk Brzeziński told the outlet from the Defence and Security Equipment International, a biennial event that is being held for the first time since Russia's February 2022 invasion.

Ukrainian forces have used such portable rocket launchers, or MANPADS, to challenge Russia's air supremacy. The systems — also provided by the United States — are both easily deployed and require limited manpower, capable of being carried on the back of a single soldier. On Monday, Ukraine's military intelligence service released a video showing soldiers using such a system to fend off an attack from a Russian Su-30 fighter jet.

While providing Ukraine with arms serves Warsaw's national security interests, it is also proving a boon to its defense sector. With the war, "Poland sees an unprecedented opportunity to finally achieve its ambitions and become a more significant player in the global arms industry," according to The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (military spending in Europe was up 13% last year, SIPRI has noted).

To that end, PGZ said it recently signed deals to provide MANPADS to a country in the Balkans and another in the Baltics, according to Defense News. Last year, the company's Mesko subsidiary also said it would sell Estonia its Piorun air defense system, likewise deployed in Ukraine. The Baltic state purchased some 300 missiles and 100 launching systems.

Other arms makers have also used Ukraine as a selling point — Ukrainian firms, especially.

"Everything you might see here is all combat proven right now and servicing the [Ukrainian] army," Oleg Skillar, a project manager at a state-owned arms company, told National Defense Magazine at the start of an arms exhibition earlier this year in Abu Dhabi.

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