Achilles Shield: Israel to build air-defense system for Greece

Greece and Israel have signed a roughly 3 billion euro agreement to create a multilayered air-defense network designed to counter aircraft, drones, missiles and ballistic weapons.

The project, called the Achilles Shield, is expected to be completed within 35 months, according to Greek public broadcaster ERTNews. Israel’s Defense Ministry described it as the largest arms export agreement in the history of Israeli-Greek relations and one of the largest in Israel’s history.

The new network will connect existing Greek systems, including Patriot batteries and unmanned aircraft, with Israeli air-defense systems covering different ranges. A central software platform will use artificial intelligence to process data from the various systems, detect and classify threats, and recommend the most suitable defense response.

Drones are a particular concern for Greece. The country wants to avoid regularly using expensive fighter jets against relatively inexpensive unmanned aircraft. The integrated system is therefore intended to select the most effective and least costly response according to the threat.

Greek media have reported that Athens sought access to the software’s source code. That would give the Greek armed forces greater influence over the system’s electronic components and future development. The agreement continues a broader expansion of military cooperation between Greece and Israel, amid strained relations involving both countries and Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean.