Greece is interested in purchasing ballistic missiles from Israel

Greece is interested in purchasing from Israel Laura missiles produced by the aerospace industry, in response to the aggression displayed by Turkey with locally produced “Typhoon” missiles. This is reported on the Greek “Greek City Times” website. According to the report, the Ministry of Defense in Athens wants to place those missiles on islands in the Aegean Sea, right next to the maritime border between the countries.

“This is a necessary and immediate response,” senior Greek security officials told Greek City Times. Lora missiles are designed for ranges of about 400-500 km, with an accuracy of up to less than ten meters – which makes them particularly accurate. These are missiles that have proven themselves on the battlefield, and not only in Israel: one of Lora’s significant customers is Azerbaijan, which used them extensively in the second Karabakh war in 2020 against Armenia.

The Greek offensive interest is not limited to Laura. According to the reports, the Greek Ministry of Defense is also interested in “Extra” rockets, produced by Elbit and the Aerospace Industry, with ranges of about 300 km. Those rockets are used, for example, by Morocco and Azerbaijan, with the help of Elbit’s PULS: a system that provides a comprehensive solution for launching unguided rockets, precision armaments, and even missiles of various ranges. The same PULS is expected to be purchased by the Greeks soon for About 700-500 million euros.

The Greek hope is that such proven offensive systems will curb the Turkish aggression, which is based on Typhoon missiles, which have a range of about 565 km and a warhead of about 500 kg. These threaten all the Greek islands, while Athens now wants to create a symmetrical threat. “Soon, Greece’s ground forces will be equipped with accurate ballistic missiles of the Laura model from Israel,” senior Greek officials told the local website. “Very soon, Greek ground forces will deploy lora, extra and long-range artillery means on every major Greek island, ensuring deterrence against Turkish aggression.”

Missile sales with Greece are very significant, but very soon a particularly unusual deal is expected for the sale of three Israeli air defense systems to Greece for about 3 billion euros (about 3.5 billion dollars), an amount similar to the sale of Arrow 3 to Germany. The same deal is expected to include Rafael’s Spyder to replace the Russian OSA-AK and Tor M-1, IAI’s Barak MX to replace the Hawk systems, and the David slingshot, also Rafael’s, to the Russian S-300. They are expected to be integrated into a renewed formation alongside Patriot, which the Greeks will keep in their possession.

“As a result of conflicts in the world and an increase in threats, there is an increase in the purchase of air defense systems,” Boaz Levy, CEO of the Aerospace Industry, told Globes a few days ago. This is a system that was put into operation, everyone who buys knows what he is buying. The interest in the system, which expresses the Jewish mind and unique thinking, is not limited only to Greece.”

Such an extensive deal is due to the fact that Athens did not invest for a long time in its military technologies, and now the Greeks found themselves in a gap in general and against the main Turkish threat in particular. The high amount of approximately 3.5 billion dollars is intended to initially cover only the areas of Thrace and the eastern Aegean Sea, with further transactions expected to be carried out later.

The Barak MX system of the Aerospace Industry supports various radars and launchers to cover against fighter planes, helicopters, drones, cruise missiles, surface-to-air missiles and surface-to-surface missiles. The system is based on a smart and operationally proven control center, which allows the integration of additional interceptors: the Barak MRAD short-range interceptor is launched vertically at high speed, is adapted to deal with threats at a range of up to 35 km, and includes a radar homing warhead with only one pulse engine. The medium-range LRAD lightning interceptor is launched vertically at high speed, is adapted to deal with threats at a range of up to 70 km and includes a radar homing warhead with a two-pulse engine. This is the only interceptor that is permanently included in the Israeli air defense system, through its placement on Sa’ar 6 ships.

The latest Barak MX interceptor is a long-range Barak ER that is launched vertically and includes an accelerator engine, a two-pulse rocket engine and an advanced radar homing head. Increasing the interception range of the Barak ER is done by adding a rocket booster and adjusting the communication and radar capabilities to a range of 150 km. All the engines for the various interceptors are produced by the government company Tomer, which is considered a national source of knowledge in the field. Similar to the Spider, the Barak MX has been sold to several countries in the world, One of the most prominent of which is Azerbaijan, which purchased it in November 2023 for $1.2 billion.