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Israel-Greece Defense Agreement Counters Possible Threats from Turkey
(Israel Hayom) Aharon Lapidot - In recent years, a Sunni alliance has been taking shape among Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. On Monday, Israel and Greece signed a $3.6 billion defense deal called Achilles' Shield to preserve the regional balance of power. Three advanced Israeli missile-defense systems will defend Greek airspace from Athens to the tourist islands of the Aegean Sea. For Israel, the diplomatic and economic value is enormous. The agreement will integrate Greece's existing Patriot batteries with the David's Sling system for long-range ballistic missile defense; the Barak MX for engaging fighter aircraft, helicopters, drones and missiles; and the SPYDER designed to intercept low-flying aircraft, drones and loitering munitions. The Israeli radar network incorporated into Achilles' Shield is intended to provide Greece with an unprecedented operational response to threats from the east. Deploying mobile ELTA MMR-series radars will eliminate blind spots. The system is also designed to confront drone swarms and saturation attacks through active electronically scanned array, or AESA, radar technology. AESA systems electronically direct large numbers of beams, enabling them to track hundreds of targets simultaneously with high precision. Long-range radars integrated with David's Sling can detect ballistic missile launches hundreds of kilometers inside territory to Greece's east, enabling the system to calculate a missile's trajectory accurately and launch an effective interceptor before the threat approaches populated airspace. The agreement will channel enormous sums into Israel's defense industries, while a dozen Greek defense industries will account for 25% of the project's value through local production. Within 35 months, Greece is expected to complete a sweeping transformation of its air-defense architecture.