Representatives of Greece and Israel signed the intergovernmental agreement on Monday for the development of an anti-aircraft, anti-ballistic missile, and counter-drone shield, known as the “Achilles Shield,” featuring a comprehensive and integrated command-and-control system for the Greek Armed Forces. The agreement was signed in Tel Aviv between Greece’s Ministry of National Defense and Israeli defense officials.
The Greek “dome” is a central component of the “Agenda 2030” Greek reform plan, also making Greece the first EU member state to adopt a similar air defense system.
According to the Greek defense ministry, the program’s total budget amounts to €3.035 billion ($3.5 billion). Its implementation provides for broad participation by Greece’s defense and technology ecosystem, with nineteen Greek companies already involved. Their share exceeds 25 percent, corresponding to €750 million ($869.8 million). At the same time, the program envisages the creation of a production base in Greece with export potential, AMNA notes.
The aim is for Greece not to remain a passive buyer and user of defense systems but to actively participate in their design, production, and development, strengthening domestic expertise, according to Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias.
Symbolic name of Achilles Shield Greek Air Defense System
In a statement to Greek newspaper To Vima tis Kyriakis and an official announcement by the Ministry of National Defense, Dendias noted that the “Achilles Shield” marks “the transition from an aggregation of weapons systems to a holistic deterrence system.”
Its development means that the Hellenic Navy’s new ships and 4.5- and fifth-generation aircraft will no longer be confined to “the narrow defense of the Aegean”, but “will be able to assume a broader deterrence role,” he added.
The name Achilles Shield was not chosen by chance, as the shield of the Homeric hero had aslo consisted of “five overlapping layers,” the Greek Defense Minister explained. In the same spirit, this modern Greek “shield” constitutes “a multi-layered protection architecture for Greek territory” comprising five domains: “sea, land, air, cyberspace and space.”
Ships, aircraft, land-based assets, autonomous systems, and new satellites, as well as, more broadly, every platform equipped with sensors, will be integrated into this unified network-centric architecture. At the heart of the Achilles’ Shield is an integrated Command & Control system that prioritizes and assesses threats as well as proposes the optimal response, thereby transforming information into operational capability.
Greece acquires fleet of micro-satellites
The establishment in Greece of one of the two nodes of the European GOVSATCOM programme for secure government satellite communications highlights the country’s geopolitical and strategic role as a pillar of security and stability for the European Union, Dendias stressed.
The Greek Defense Minister revealed that Greece has acquired a fleet of microsatellites and is preparing for its first major geostationary satellite. “Satellite communications constitute an additional dimension of the ‘Achilles Shield,’” he said, “representing the extension of our holistic approach into the space domain,” which “is becoming increasingly important for modern defense.”
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