According to the Hellenic Ministry of National Defence, in mid-December, German company Diehl Defence presented its offer of GBAD solutions to representatives of the Hellenic Army General Staff. It is worth noticing that a similar meeting was held in May this year, and the talks focused on the capabilities of air defence systems offered by Diehl.
Hellenic Armed Forces intend to modernize its air defence. Currently, Greece operates the S-300PMU1 (export version of Russian-made S-300P) air defence systems developed in the last years of the Soviet era. In December, the government of Greece offered the transfer of its S-300 systems to Ukraine, but Athens expects to receive the Patriot PAC-3 in return.
However, the Patriot air defence system in the number of launchers and missiles satisfied for Greece may be not available to transfer on short notice. Moreover, Patriot does not offer defence capabilities against all types of airborne threats. Ground Based Air Defence system offered by German company achieves very high effectiveness in Ukraine and now attracts the interest of many countries.
The attractiveness of Diehl’s offer is enhanced by a recently-signed memorandum of cooperation with Hellenic Defence Systems (EAS) on IRIS-T SLS/SLM air defence systems. The Greek company is already involved in the production of components of IRIS-T air-to-air missiles and the key point of the memorandum is the extension of this cooperation to surface-to-air variants of IRIS-T missile family.
The memorandum was signed in the presence of the Greek officials: Secretary General of the Ministry of National Defence, Antonis Oikonomou, the General Director of Defence Investments and Armaments, Admiral Aristidis Alexopoulos, the Deputy General Director of Defence Investments and Armaments, General Misail Papadakis, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hellenic Defence Systems, Athanasios Tsiolkas.
Furthermore, Diehl Defence has been cooperating with Greek defence industry in the field of IRIS-T air-to-air missile for many years. Another partner of German company is Intracom Defense (IDE) which is the supplier of electronics components for IRIS-T missiles. In June this year, Diehl has signed a new contract with IDE for the production of crucial electronic missile components of the IRIS-T family of missile systems. Another Greek company involved in the production of IRIS-T missiles is Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI).
