{"id":601711,"date":"2026-08-31T16:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T16:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/601711\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T16:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T16:04:09","slug":"greece-signs-3-5bn-air-defence-deal-with-israel-european-union-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/601711\/","title":{"rendered":"Greece signs $3.5bn air defence deal with Israel | European Union News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Developing\"\/<\/p>\n

Greece signs $3.5bn deal with Israel to acquire its first multi-layered air defence network by 2029.<\/p>\n

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Published On 31 Aug 202631 Aug 2026<\/p>\n

Greece has signed a $3.5bn defence deal with Israel to provide its first integrated \u201cmulti-layered\u201d air defence network.<\/p>\n

Israel said the agreement, negotiated over three years, is one of the largest in the country\u2019s history..<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 2 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Engineers will set up an aerial defence shield for the Greeks, integrating three Israeli systems, including the SPYDER system, produced by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the BARAK MX system, made by Israel Aerospace Industries and David\u2019s Sling air defence technology, an Israeli defence ministry statement said on Monday.<\/p>\n

The agreement comes as Israeli weapons\u2019 exports are soaring, despite widespread criticism over its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza and other wars in Lebanon and Iran.<\/p>\n

Israeli weapons exports reached record highs with more than $19bn last year, a 30 percent increase from 2024, according to official data.<\/p>\n

\u201cModern conflicts have already altered the parameters of military defence and deterrence,\u201d Greece\u2019s Defence Minister, Nikos Dendias, said in a statement after the agreement was signed.<\/p>\n

\u201cTechnology, ballistic missiles, satellite communications, unmanned systems, cyber threats, hybrid forms of warfare and the interconnection of fields of operations have long rendered pre-existing defence doctrines completely unrealistic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Reporting from Athens, Al Jazeera\u2019s John Psaropoulos said the systems could counter a range of aerial threats.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe SPYDER and David\u2019s Sling are short-to-medium-range air defence missile systems. They fire missiles to intercept incoming aircraft, cruise missiles and large drones. The BARAK can do all these things, but it also intercepts incoming ballistics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Separately, Greece signed a $30m deal with Israel for Rafael\u2019s Drone Dome system, \u201cto defend strategic sites against UAVs and drones and to reinforce existing defences\u201d.<\/p>\n

Europe\u2019s changing security landscape<\/p>\n

Greece is the second European Union member to agree to buy the David\u2019s Sling system, after Finland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is Greece interpreting the lessons from the war in Ukraine, which has changed the nature of armed conflict and realising that it needs much stronger air defences to intercept whatever might come in from the East.\u201d Psaropoulos said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that the war in the Gulf has reawakened Iranian animosity towards US allies in Europe, there is a perceived threat from there as well as from other countries in the East,\u201d Psaropoulos added.<\/p>\n

Greece spends nearly 3.5 percent of its gross domestic product on defence, a higher proportion than \u2060many NATO allies due to its long-standing dispute with neighbouring Turkiye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greece signs $3.5bn deal with Israel to acquire its first multi-layered air defence network by 2029. Published On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[63,1685,916,85,46,47,43],"class_list":["post-601711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-europe","tag-european-union","tag-greece","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-middle-east","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}