The escalation of Turkish provocations, both at the verbal level and on the ground, has by no means gone unnoticed by the Pentagon’s radar, with Athens recording the other side’s reactions minute by minute, as it appears to be struggling to digest Greece’s multidimensional foreign policy.

The signing of the agreements for the “Achilles Shield”, the new fleet, as well as the strategic Greece-Israel alliance, which is developing on all levels, have paralysed – if not isolated – Ankara, which is attempting to reposition itself on the chessboard of the Eastern Mediterranean, with the Syrian front also remaining open. Against this backdrop, the increase in violations of the Athens FIR, the aggressive remarks by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, as well as developments concerning the Greece-Cyprus electricity interconnection have disturbed the “calm waters” seen until recently, with the Pentagon placed on alert for any eventuality and calmly examining all scenarios.

The secrets of the “Kimon”

Already, under conditions of the utmost secrecy and in the presence of Minister of National Defence Nikos Dendias and Secretary-General Antonis Oikonomou, the Defence Council met last Tuesday and Wednesday aboard the “Kimon”, while the “flagship” of the Greek fleet was at sea, sending the strongest possible deterrence message in all directions, just hours after Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s three-day visit to Kastellorizo, once again signalling the red lines of Greek foreign policy.

According to information, at the Defence Council meeting aboard the “Kimon”, briefings were given and issues concerning all branches of the Armed Forces were discussed, even though the meeting was never publicly announced, despite the participation of more than 40 Armed Forces personnel, while the Minister of National Defence once again had the opportunity to assess the operational capabilities of the FDI frigate of the Greek fleet.

At the same time, the Pentagon is responding calmly and confidently to Turkish activity, as the operational capabilities of the Greek Armed Forces have recently been demonstrated both at Akrotiri in Cyprus and in Saudi Arabia.

Furthermore, the timing coincides with the development of bilateral and multilateral relations cultivated by Athens, as in recent days Exercise “ORMI 2/26” and the tri-service exercise “MEDUSA 15-2026” have taken place, with Greece, Egypt and Cyprus as the main participating countries, alongside France and Italy. At the same time, Greek ships continue to participate in European operations in the Eastern Mediterranean, while the recent joint training exercise between the Hellenic Navy and units of the Israeli Navy, announced simultaneously by Athens and Tel Aviv, can hardly be considered coincidental in this geopolitical context.

Dendias in Egypt

The next moves by Minister of National Defence Nikos Dendias also form part of the same framework, as he visited Egypt, a key country for the balance of power in the wider region.

It is no secret, after all, that Ankara strongly desires Cairo’s alignment with the “Mecca Agreement”, while any enhancement of Egypt’s role in the Greece-Cyprus-Israel alliance would constitute yet another problem for the hegemonic stance Turkey is seeking to project in the Eastern Mediterranean. All the more so when the Minister of National Defence’s visit to Cairo concerns the trilateral cooperation between Greece, Cyprus and Egypt in the field of defence, in the aftermath of the “MEDUSA 15-2026” joint exercise, hosted by the country’s Minister of Defence and Chief of the Armed Forces, Salem Zaher, with the participation of the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Cyprus, Vasilis Palmas.

Nikos Dendias expressed his satisfaction with his visit to Egypt and conveyed to Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi the greetings of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The Minister of National Defence stressed the importance Greece attaches to the depth and long historical course of its relations with Egypt, confirming Athens’s intention to strengthen coordination with Cairo in addressing common challenges. He made particular reference to the two countries’ cooperation in combating terrorism and addressing irregular migration. Nikos Dendias also expressed the Greek side’s appreciation for the key role played by Egypt in curbing irregular migration flows.

In this context, the joint communiqué explicitly states: “The importance of strengthening the frameworks of military and defence cooperation to support the collective ability for a rapid and unified response to any future developments concerning sources of threats of any kind against the three countries”, underlining the parties’ commitment to a coordinated response to any kind of threat.

During the meeting, trilateral cooperation between Greece, Egypt and Cyprus was also discussed. Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi stressed that this format has evolved into a successful model of regional cooperation, aimed at consolidating peace and stability, as well as promoting shared prosperity in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The Egyptian president also highlighted the need for further strengthening coordination among the three countries, both to address common challenges and to promote their development.

Greek drone production to reach 15,000 by the end of 2026

And if the Greek war fleet is currently at sea, neither is Turkish superiority in unmanned aerial vehicles a scenario that Athens cannot effectively address, as Greek drone production will reach 15,000 by the end of 2026, while information suggests that the relevant Armed Forces units are already producing “very large numbers”.

This is all the more significant given that the 309 Unmanned Systems Manufacturing Factory was inaugurated in Malakasa at the beginning of the summer, while the 306 Base Factory and the 316 Base Factory in Menidi and Petrochori, Xanthi, respectively, are operating without interruption.

At the same time, however, the landscape regarding the integration of unmanned aerial vehicles into the Greek Armed Forces has changed dramatically, as, according to reliable information, preparations are now underway to enable them to produce drones on site through mobile units on the islands and in Thrace.

Deterrence doctrine

At the same time, at the forefront of the Greek deterrence doctrine, as it has been transformed within the framework of the New Structure of the Armed Forces, is the “Kentauros” anti-drone system, developed by Hellenic Aerospace Industry (EAB), with its own source code. The fact that “Kentauros” was developed by the Greek defence ecosystem and tested with complete success in the operational field, moving beyond the laboratory stage, has reportedly attracted the interest of a number of countries seeking to acquire it, while it forms part of Greece’s broader anti-drone, air-defence and anti-ballistic protection architecture, namely the “Achilles Shield”.

Furthermore, the acquisition of the V-BAT system (“Category 2”) by the Greek Armed Forces following a donation from the Laskaridis Foundation, as well as the arrival of the French Patroller “Category 3” UAV system at the end of the current month, which is expected to assist the Army with surveillance and intelligence gathering, create a capable protection network against the potential presence of unmanned aerial vehicles, although Athens does not appear to have confined itself to the mass production of “Category 1” systems.

“In a very short period of time, the 306 EBT and 316 SPTX have the ability, as we speak, that is, within a period of two years, to produce 4,000 FPV, Category 1 drones. And, indeed, with the addition of six Mobile Production Units, this capability gains dispersion, flexibility and operational depth, as well as giving formation commanders the ability to decide exactly what they need, adapt the software to their absolute operational requirements in a very short time, without the need for the huge process of obtaining approval, an order, analysis by the General Staffs or the political leadership,” Minister of National Defence Nikos Dendias said pointedly at the inauguration of the joint-service factory in Malakasa, publicly opening for the first time the software chapter for Greek defence, a field that does not appear to be outside the Armed Forces’ areas of interest.

Just a few years after the first exercise in which Mr Dendias participated as Minister of National Defence in Petrochori, Xanthi, he found that its scenario involved deterring only two drones, when at the same time Western military staffs around the world were preparing to deal with successive swarms in the event of armed conflict.

A full arsenal

In this sense, the green light given by the Government Council for Foreign Affairs and Defence (KYSEA) to the new era for the Greek Armed Forces, for example at its most recent meeting, does not include only large surface units, but also systems such as Drone Dome, which has the ability to disrupt a given drone’s communication with its operator, as well as its GPS, and has already demonstrated its capabilities, having been used to protect the G7 Summit in Cornwall in 2021.

The same modernisation approach also includes the activation of the programme “Greece’s inclusion as a Third Party Sales Nation – Procurement of LLC-7M Cryptographic Devices”, which aims to procure 17 LLC-7M cryptographic devices and 17 Link 22 systems, as well as classified GSM, which will be installed on Hellenic Navy ships, along with a total of eight CamCopter S-100 unmanned helicopters, manufactured by Austrian company Schiebel, to be integrated into the Navy’s frigates.