Nikos Panagiotopoulos
National Defence Minister, Nikos Panagiotopoulos said that Greece will soon start to manufacture its own Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV).
Speaking at Parliament on Friday, he also revealed that the country will acquire three UAVs from the US and two from Israel.
Panagiotopoulos said that he had contacts and will take "advantage of the talent and ingenuity of the Aristotle University and European funding opportunities to further our defense industry."
The National Defence Minister also revealed that Greece plans to acquire three UAVs from the United States with “surveillance capabilities to cover an area from the Black Sea to Libya,” as well as two more UAVs made in Israel. He further added that they are now required especially after the border deal Libya and Turkey agreed on recently.
"And don't tell me that we should not inspect the region as far as Libya and that we should only go from Evros to Crete, considering the latest developments,” he told lawmakers during a debate on a draft bill for the upgrade of Greece's F-16 and Mirage fighter jet fleet.
The Israeli drones are a part of a separate program already approved by the National Defense office.