Greece approves $4b Israel air defense procurement

Greece’s National Security Council (KYSEA) today approved an historic deal to procure a multi-layered air defense system from Israel for €3.5 billion ($4 billion). “Reuters” reports that the deal will also include unmanned aerial vehicles.

The Israeli air defense systems that Greece is procuring includes Rafael’s David’s Sling in the long range tier, Israel Aerospace Industries Barak MX in the medium range tier, and Rafael’s Spyder in the short range tier.

David’s Sling is not a system that is often sold abroad, and not because of a lack of demand, but because of its technological quality. Its main deal to date was in August 2023 to Finland for approximately €316 million.

The system has a range of up to 300 kilometers and a speed of 2.55 kilometers per second (Mach 7.5), and is designed for intercepting cruise missiles, aircraft, and drones. The system also reflects domestic Israeli cooperation: it includes the MMR radar developed by IAI’s Elta division, and the Golden Almond command and control system developed by Elbit’s Elisra unit.

The success of David’s Sling led Israel’s Ministry of Defense to decide in May 2024 to decommission the US Patriot missile batteries.

Greece has not invested heavily in military technologies for many years, and now they find themselves at a disadvantage in the face of the main threat from Turkey. The large amount of the deal is intended to initially cover only the areas of Thrace and the eastern Aegean Sea, with further deals expected later. Due to the threat of Turkish missiles and rockets that covers the entire country, Greece needs diverse solutions.

Combination of interceptor missiles

The Barak MX system supports various radars and launchers to cover against fighter jets, helicopters, UAVs, cruise missiles, surface-to-air missiles and surface-to-surface missiles.

The system is based on a smart and operationally proven control center, which allows the integration of additional interceptor missiles: the short-range Barak MRAD interceptor, launched vertically at high speed, adapted to deal with threats at a range of up to 35 kilometers and includes a radar homing head with only one pulse engine; the medium-range Barak LRAD interceptor, launched vertically at high speed, adapted to deal with threats at a range of up to 70 kilometers and includes a radar homing head with a dual-pulse engine; and the long-range Barak ER interceptor, launched vertically and includes a booster engine, a dual-pulse rocket engine and an advanced radar homing head. Increasing the interception range of the Barak ER is achieved by adding a rocket booster and adjusting the communications and radar capabilities to a range of 150 kilometers.

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All engines for the various interceptors are manufactured by the government company Tomer, which is considered a source of national knowledge in the field. The only model used in the Israeli air defense system is the LRAD, which is used in Saar 6 vessels.

The Barak MX system from IAI has been sold to a number of countries around the world, one of the most notable of which is Azerbaijan, which procured it in November 2023 for $1.2 billion.

Rafael presented the Spyder system to the senior command of the Greek Air Force in April 2024. The system recently made headlines around the world, following its sale to Romania in a major deal worth more than €2 billion.

Spyder provides air defense solutions for various ranges and against a variety of aerial threats, including UAVs, aircraft, helicopters and short-range ballistic missiles. The system intercepts the threats using two families of interceptors manufactured by Rafael – Python and Derby.

An historic achievement

Approval by the Greek National Security Council represents an achievement of historic proportions for Israel’s Ministry of Defense. In 2025, defense exports reached a record of €19.2 billion, of which about €10 billion was in government-to-government (G2G) transactions – now a deal of historic proportions may be completed. All this, shortly after the deal with Romania and a visit by the Ministry of Defense director general, Maj. Gen. (res.) Amir Baram to India, aimed at further deepening the fruitful defense cooperation.

Until now, the largest defense deal ever made by the State of Israel was the sale of the Arrow 3 by IAI to Germany in 2023, for about $3.5 billion. In December 2025, as revealed by “Globes,” a follow-up deal was agreed for about $3.1 billion, to significantly increase the production rate of Arrow 3 missiles and launchers.

Prior to the Arrow 3 deal to Germany, the record belonged to the sale of Barak 8 systems (MRSAM) to India in April 2017, for $1.6 billion. About a month later, the naval version of Barak 8 missiles were sold for an additional $630 million.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on July 23, 2026.

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