Dendias: Greece will acquire two “domes”, one anti-aircraft and one anti-drone – 2 billion euros have been pledged

Extremely optimistic that Greece will succeed in creating an ecosystem of defense industries, “which can produce innovative products that meet the existing and recorded needs of the Greek Armed Forces, said the Minister of National Defense, Nikos Dendias, in an interview within the framework of the exhibition BEYOND 2024, in Thessaloniki.

As he said, a new framework will be created, the Hellenic Center for Defense Innovation, which will take the needs of the Armed Forces and announce them to this ecosystem.

Priority, he pointed out, will be given to the creation of two domes, an anti-aircraft and an anti-drone dome, for which the sum of 2 billion euros has been committed

Mr. Dendias emphasized that our defense ecosystem contributes to the GDP the negligible, as he characterized it, 0.74% and added that Greece buys equipment from abroad “to be able to maintain our independence, our territorial integrity, and to do this we must at least be in a phase that allows us to respond to the challenges of our environment”

“As you know, Greece – I always say – is not Luxembourg, not everyone is our friend next door, they don’t throw carnations at us. You look at the shipbuilding program of, for example, our neighbor Turkey. Look at our neighbor Turkey’s drone program. We must have a reasonable response to them. I’m not saying let’s get into a competition of who will be first. We want to defend ourselves, but to be able to have a deterrent option,” he said.

Responding to a related question, Mr. Dendias said that technologies and capabilities were found in the ODA that, if developed, will surprise us all, but he added that there was a complete lack of connection with the Greek armed forces and the defense ecosystem.

He described the Constellation program, which we are co-designing with the USA, as a huge opportunity, which provides for the production of frigates in Greek shipyards and service for ships in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. “So, we are talking about a job that will take 60-70 years in our shipyards”, he added

Finally, when asked about Central Macedonia, for which the prime minister appointed him coordinator, he underlined that “there is a current of populism, which mainly comes from the right, and which threatens all the parties that follow the path of European integration ».

“We have to fight here to overturn what polls say, it makes no sense to tell you, but I’ve seen the measurements, you’ve seen them too, we have to try a little. I wouldn’t be here otherwise. Well, I hope, I always hope, in the strength of the argument. I understand that we are starting from a point that is not the best, but we also have positives. I saw the Prefect before, a 70% Prefect. We have forces in Local Government. So I think we’ll be fine. But it takes effort,” he emphasized.