Israel and Greece will sign an agreement on the creation of a missile defense system worth 3.1 billion euros

On Monday, August 31, in Tel Aviv it is planned to sign agreements on the creation in Greece of a multi-level air and missile defense system “Achilles Shield” worth about 3.1 billion euros. This is reported by Ynet and Kathimerini.

The agreements will be signed by representatives of the General Directorate of Defense Investments and Armaments of the Greek Ministry of Defense and the Directorate of International Defense Cooperation of the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Once signed, the project will begin implementation and is expected to be completed in approximately 35 months.

“Achilles Shield” should combine the air defense systems already available to Greece, including Patriot systems, with the Israeli Spyder systems produced by Rafael, Barak MX of the Israel Aerospace Industries concern and David’s Sling. A unified control system will receive information from radars and other sensors, classify threats and, using artificial intelligence technologies, propose the optimal means of interception – from drones to ballistic missiles.

A significant part of the agreement concerns the participation of Greek industry. It is planned to involve 12 Greek companies in the project, which will receive orders worth more than 700 million euros – about 25% of the total cost of the program. According to Kathimerini, during the negotiations the parties also resolved the issue of transferring to Greece the source code of the software that controls the electronic subsystems of the complex. This should give the Greek military the ability to independently maintain, adapt and modernize the system.

In July, the Greek government approved the Achilles Shield program. It became the largest part of the defense procurement package approved by Athens with a total value of 4.2 billion euros.