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- Anti-drone system propels Greek plans for home-grown defence industry</p>
<p>Lefteris PapadimasAugust 5, 2025 at 2:07 AM</p>
<p>By Lefteris Papadimas</p>
<p>ATHENS (Reuters) -It took just minutes for a new Greek-made anti-drone system to show what it is capable of.</p>
<p>On its first test run with a European Union patrol in the Red Sea a year ago, the Centauros system detected and swiftly brought down two aerial drones launched by Yemen's Houthis, who have been attacking merchant vessels in the busy shipping lane.</p>
<p>Another two drones swiftly retreated: Centauros had jammed their electronics, said Kyriakos Enotiadis, electronics director at state-run Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI), which produces the anti-drone system.</p>
<p>The successful test run added impetus to Greek government plans to develop a home-grown industry to mass produce anti-drone and drone systems - part of a 30-billion-euro programme aimed at modernising the country's armed forces by 2036.</p>
<p>Named after the mythological half-man, half-horse creature, Centauros can detect drones from a distance of 150 km (93 miles) and fire from 25 km (15.5 miles). Greece plans to install it throughout its naval fleet.</p>
<p>"It's the only battle-proven anti-drone system (made) in Europe," Enotiadis said, as dozens of employees worked nearby, assembling electronic components of anti-aircraft missiles.</p>
<p>Up until now, Greece has been using only a few dozen ISR - intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance - unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), most of them made abroad, including in France and Israel.</p>
<p>As the multibillion-euro defence programme is rolled out, it will incorporate Greek-made anti-drone and combat drone systems into the armed forces, including its planned anti-aircraft ballistic dome, called Achilles Shield</p>
<p>Greece's neighbour, NATO-ally and historic rival Turkey is a prolific drone exporter.</p>
<p>Greece spends nearly 3.5% of gross domestic product on defence due to the long-standing dispute with Turkey, with the domestic defence industry accounting for only a fraction of that.</p>
<p>In the coming decade, it plans to invest some 800 million euros ($925 million) in defence innovation, said Pantelis Tzortzakis, CEO of the newly founded Hellenic Centre for Defence Innovation (HCDI), which is supervised by the Defence Ministry.</p>
<p>"Our target is to export as much as we spend on defence annually," Tzortzakis said.</p>
<p>Altus, one of a few Greek private companies that manufacture combat drones, in cooperation with France's MBDA, has produced Kerveros - a vertical take-off and landing UAV with a payload of more than 30 kg (66 pounds) that includes advanced anti-tank missiles.</p>
<p>"I'm very optimistic about the Greek drone industry," said Zacharias Sarris, co-owner of Altus, which already exports ISR drones to five countries.</p>
<p>"Greece has a great need for this technology," he added, referring to the country's complex geopolitical position.</p>
<p>In the meantime, HAI is aiming high.</p>
<p>In 2026, it will start mass-producing two more portable anti-drone systems called Iperion and Telemachus, designed to protect troops from drone swarms and lethal mini drones.</p>
<p>It will also present its first big unmanned aerial vehicle, Archytas, named after the ancient Greek inventor said to have produced the first autonomous flying machine in about 400 BC.</p>
<p>"We are striving for this UAV to be the best of its kind," said Nikos Koklas, the company's director of new products.</p>
<p>($1 = 0.8643 euros)</p>
<p>(Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas;Editing by Helen Popper)</p>
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