By Steven Scheer and Lefteris Papadimas<\/p>\n
JERUSALEM\/ATHENS, Aug 31 (Reuters) \u2013 Israel and Greece signed a \u20ac3 billion ($3.5 billion) defence deal on Monday under which Israel will build a multi-layered air \u200bdefence system for Greece as Athens pushes ahead \u200cwith a broader military modernisation programme.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s defence ministry said it was Israel\u2019s largest-ever defence export deal with Greece and one of the biggest in the country\u2019s history. The agreement confirmed an earlier Reuters report.<\/p>\n
Amir Baram, director general \u200cof \u200bIsrael\u2019s defence ministry, said the so-called Achilles \u2060Shield deal reflected \u201cIsrael\u2019s technological \u2060edge and the proven track record of our defence systems in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the deal, Israel will supply Greece with the David\u2019s Sling and SPYDER systems produced by Rafael Advanced \u200bDefense Systems and the BARAK MX system made by Israel Aerospace Industries, as well as MMR multi-mission radars for \u2060air surveillance, manufactured by IAI unit ELTA \u2060Systems.<\/p>\n
David\u2019s Sling was used by Israel to intercept \u200bIranian missiles during the war with Iran this year. Greece becomes \u200bthe second customer for the system after Finland.<\/p>\n
Greece spends \u200cnearly 3.5% of its gross domestic product on defence, a higher proportion than many NATO allies due to its long-standing dispute with neighbouring Turkey.<\/p>\n
Athens plans to spend about \u20ac28 billion by 2036 \u2060to build\u00a0the Achilles Shield multi-layer anti-ballistic, anti-aircraft and anti-drone system, and to buy up to 40 F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. and \u2060frigates from France \u200cand Italy.<\/p>\n
Under Monday\u2019s deal, Greece will also receive \u2060a new national command-and-control system, developed by Rafael, \u200bto \u200cintegrate the country\u2019s air-defence capabilities.<\/p>\n
A supplementary \u20ac26 million agreement \u200bwill see \u2060Israel supply Greece with Rafael\u2019s Drone Dome systems to protect strategic sites against drones and reinforce existing defences.<\/p>\n
Israel will also expand defence-industrial cooperation with Greece, including transfers of technology and expertise to local industry.<\/p>\n
($1 = 0.8623 euros)<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Steven Scheer. Editing by Alison Williams \u200band Mark Potter)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Steven Scheer and Lefteris Papadimas JERUSALEM\/ATHENS, Aug 31 (Reuters) \u2013 Israel and Greece signed a \u20ac3 billion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-8669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-defence-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}