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Posted on 08/31/2026 4:34:57 AM PDT by Cronos
Greece is set to sign a 3.1 billion euro defence agreement with Israel in Tel Aviv, marking the largest single defence export deal in Israeli history and equipping Athens with its first fully integrated, multi-layered air defence system.
A Greek delegation will formalise the contract with the Israeli Defence Ministry, concluding three years of negotiations. The systems, known collectively in Greece as Achilles’ Shield, will be delivered in stages and are scheduled to reach full operational readiness within 35 months.
Most of the funding will flow to Rafael Advanced Defence Systems for David’s Sling batteries capable of intercepting heavy rockets and ballistic missiles, alongside mobile Spyder systems designed to counter drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles. Israel Aerospace Industries will supply the Barak MX system for protection against aircraft and missiles. The package also includes a national command-and-control centre equipped with artificial intelligence capabilities, modelled in part on Israel’s own integrated air defence architecture. This centre will coordinate the various batteries and manage missile launches across the network. Greek industry is expected to take roughly 25 percent of the work, with local companies receiving approximately 700 million euros as subcontractors. Spyder batteries will be deployed on Greek islands, including destinations popular with Israeli tourists.
Greek Defence Minister Nikos Dendias has described the project as a central element of the government’s Agenda 2030 military modernisation programme. He called Achilles’ Shield “an important link in the reform of the armed forces” and “a necessary response to the geopolitical and technological challenges of our time,” arguing that the initiative is guiding Greece toward a new reality of defence and deterrence. Strategic partnership deepens amid regional friction
The agreement further solidifies a growing strategic partnership between Greece and Israel at a moment when tensions between Athens and Ankara have sharpened. Greece, Cyprus and Israel have intensified security coordination in recent years. Cyprus has already acquired the Barak MX system, according to foreign reports, while Greece has previously purchased Spike missiles and SPICE precision-guided munitions from Rafael, Rampage missiles from Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, and Heron 2 drones from IAI. The new air defence deal positions Israel as a key partner in protecting Greek airspace.
Relations between Greece and Turkey, long marked by disputes over maritime boundaries and the status of Aegean islands, briefly improved after the February 2023 earthquake in Turkey, when Athens provided substantial aid. The two sides signed the Athens Declaration on Friendly Relations and Good-Neighbourliness in December 2023. That period of relative calm lasted less than three years. In recent weeks Turkey designated two marine parks in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean, one encompassing waters between the Greek islands of Lemnos and Samothrace and another east of Rhodes surrounding Kastellorizo. Greece’s Foreign Ministry labelled the designations illegal, stating that Turkish marine parks outside Turkey’s territorial waters hold no legal validity. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed that areas under Greek sovereignty are determined by international law and that Greece remains ready to defend them.
Greek officials view the Turkish parks as an attempt to advance Ankara’s “Mavi Vatan,” or Blue Homeland, doctrine, which asserts expansive claims over exclusive economic zones belonging to Greece and Cyprus and challenges the sovereignty of numerous Greek islands. Greece has responded by accelerating its own military investments. After years of restrained spending, Athens ranked among the world’s larger arms importers between 2021 and 2025. The Achilles’ Shield project is explicitly designed to counter a spectrum of threats, including those originating from neighbouring countries, and is expected to be fully operational by 2029. Turkey-Israel rivalry: Erdogan and Netanyahu’s escalating war of words
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey has repeatedly branded Israel a “terror state,” likened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Hitler, and floated the possibility of Turkish military action against Israeli interests. Netanyahu has fired back, labeling Erdoğan an “antisemitic dictator,” while Israeli officials accuse Ankara of backing terrorism and behaving like an enemy state.
This verbal confrontation reflects a deepening strategic rivalry that analysts warn could heighten instability across an already volatile Middle East. Both nations are U.S. allies with strong ties to the Trump administration, yet their assertive military postures and competing regional ambitions, stretching from the Eastern Mediterranean to Syria and the Horn of Africa, have placed them on a collision course.
Ziya Meral, director of Raven Research and Advisory, describes the situation as an “inevitable geostrategic competition.” While outright war remains unlikely, he cautions that heightened tensions raise the risk of miscalculation. A limited strike intended to “send a message” could easily spiral.
Israel illustrated that danger last week by bombing a disused air base in northern Syria. Officials said the strike aimed to prevent an imminent Turkish deployment. Turkey and Syria denied any such plans; no casualties were reported. U.S. Ambassador Tom Barrack called the attack an “unnecessary escalation” and urged both sides to favor diplomacy over military moves.
Relations were not always this fraught. Turkey was the first Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel in 1948 and stayed out of the subsequent Arab-Israeli wars. Diplomatic and trade ties persisted for decades despite periodic friction over the Palestinian issue. Turkey’s NATO membership and Israel’s close security partnership with Washington further underpinned a pragmatic relationship.
Two recent developments have driven the sharp deterioration: Turkey’s increasingly vocal support for Palestinian causes and its expanding military footprint in Syria, which both countries view as vital to their security. The latest flashpoint came when Turkish authorities issued a warrant for Netanyahu over the interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla. Netanyahu responded by reiterating his “antisemitic dictator” charge and accusing Erdoğan of seeking to export aggression into Syria.
The personal animosity between the two leaders now amplifies broader strategic competition, leaving the region more fragile at a moment when it can least afford another layer of confrontation.
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I wonder if President Reagan ever envisioned an arms race of his SDI brainchild?
Turkey won’t be happy about this.
There might be a war coming up.
GREAT civilization that Greece.
Israel and Greece will give Turkey trouble and maybe it will get Turkey’s President to lose in his next election!!
Posted as a “public service” to provide useful and needful
information according to public platform posting rules.
The majority of US tax dollars to Israel are provided through the US Dept of State’s
“Foreign Military Financing (FMF)” program and the taxpayer financed “missile defense cooperation.”
Under a suggested “10-year Memorandum of Understanding” (2019–2028), the US taxpayers pay $3.8 billion plus annually ($3.3 billion in FMF grants plus $500 million for joint missile defense programs like Israel’s fully US financed Iron Dome and Arrow).
Congress has obediently appropriated even more billions in supplemental tax dollars——characterized as “emergency military packages” during major Israeli conflicts.
Direct US economic and budgetary tax dollars to Israel continue even as wealthy Israel’s domestic economy matured and thrived.
Some say that by subsidizing Israel’s military apparatus with billions of tax dollars annually, US taxpayers free up Israeli revenue toward extensive cheap and free social safety nets and vast profitable business interests.
Good to see at least some Europeans with respectable policies. Israel doesn’t have many friends in Europe...or in the US for that matter.
“”Good to see at least some Europeans with respectable policies. Israel doesn’t have many friends in Europe...or in the US for that matter.””
***
Yes, it’s nice to see a “mutual protection plan” policy implemented among some nations... instead of the current ssdd “mutual destruction plan” policies that other European nations have engaged in. What most of the Europeans are doing defies logic, as they embrace the destructive agenda of the open-borders, pro-immigration globalist ghouls.
Why should the Turks get upset? These are defensive measures they are no threat to anyone. So Turkey will get upset that Greece is less vulnerable to an attack? Kinda begs the question doesn’t it?
background from the FRchives:
Liz’s Rolodex-O-Jew-Hate is back!
How did you bide your time during the Suspension? More time at Der Sturmer?
Anyhow, apparently you need to steer clear of blaming Tha Jooooosss!!! For 9/11 (see below), a post that will live in infamy. From time to time. “When you least expect it!”
*********
To: All
“The infamous 911 was planned in Israel’s backyard........ within earshot of the Mossad dopes. 3000 Americans died.....but Israel gave it’s “greatest ally” NOT ONE SINGLE SOLITARY HINT of the devastation to America that was to take place. That alone should disqualify Israel from getting a single solitary tax dollar. BTW, Israel’s billions in foreign aid tax dollars is contingent on them sharing intel. The stupid greedsters ignore the contingency and grab the money.”
61 posted on 8/19/2026, 7:58:02 AM by Liz (“The heavens declare the glory of Gd; the skies the work of His hands.” (Psalm 19:1))
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4392304/posts?page=61#61
Oh, (big) nose! She’s onto us! Rub your hands together and be transported back to Joooo!land Gittel Goodovsky!
Make “Turkey” Greek Again
MTGA!!
I think Greece and Israel already have an agreement to build war ships together. Greece builds the ships and Israel arms them is my understanding.
There was a time when schools in Athens were training girls how to use firearms so they could resist a Turkish invasion. Greece needs to bring that back.
Unite against the hordes!
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