National Defense Minister, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, said that Greece will soon start to manufacture its own Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). Speaking at the 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 with the the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, contacts that will soon lead to the production of UAVs.
“Taking advantage of the talent and ingenuity of the Aristotle University, European funding opportunities, our defense industry and a specific timetable, we will soon have the Greek UAVs,” the minister said.
He noted that AUTH professors and students have already developed 3-4 prototype unmanned aircraft and another prototype will be tested in Thessaly this summer.
Noting that Turkey needed 15 years to develop its own UAVs, he stressed “we have only to unite the pieces of the puzzle and the Greek effort will soon work.”
Panagiotopoulos revealed also 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.
The Israeli drones are part of a separate program already approved by the National Foreign Affairs and Security Council.
Greece’s Defense Minister stressed that surveillance of Libya was necessary, especially nowadays – Turkey/Libya agreement – , even if it was far away from Greece.
