Rivals Greece And Turkey Are Developing Israeli-Style Air Defenses

Greece and Turkey are both developing multilayered national air defenses. While the planned systems are very different from each other they share one significant commonality—they are both inspired by Israel’s battle-tested air defenses.

Greek officials disclosed on November 14 that Athens is currently in talks with Israel to develop anti-aircraft and missile defenses. Preliminary reports have not confirmed whether Greece wants to co-develop a system tailor-made to its specifications or buy existing Israeli systems. Reuters, which broke the story, indicated that these defenses “would likely mimic Israel’s Iron Dome and other systems.”

Either way, Greece clearly wants similar air defenses capabilities to Israel. All layers of Israel’s air defenses—ranging from the long-range Arrow 3, which intercepts ballistic missiles above the atmosphere, the medium-range David’s Sling, and the Iron Dome, designed for intercepting small, short-range rockets—are combat tested against numerous threats.

Germany is bolstering its anti-missile defenses, and European defenses more generally, with a multi-billion euro acquisition of Israel’s Arrow 3, scheduled for delivery as early as 2025. Finland, which recently joined NATO and was always wary of its Russian neighbor’s intentions, ordered the David’s Sling to modernize its air defenses.

Consequently, Greece’s acquisition of the Iron Dome or other systems is not unprecedented for a European country and NATO member.

In fact, Greece has already collaborated with Israel to develop drone defenses against its neighbor and rival Turkey, which has one of the most advanced homegrown drone arsenals in the world. Greece already has Israeli anti-drone technology similar to the Israel’s Drone Dome system but modified to Greek specifications. Greek media revealed in 2022 that Athens implemented a “veritable umbrella against enemy unmanned aerial vehicles” over strategically important islands and sites across the country using these systems.

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Athens might now aim for a similar arrangement for its broader air defenses. The most advanced systems in its current inventory are the long-range, high-altitude American MIM-104 Patriot and the Russian S-300PMU-1. It may seek Israeli specialty to improve its low and medium altitude air defense capabilities with systems similar to the Iron Dome and David’s Sling.

At the same time, Turkey also seeks Israeli-style air defenses. However, unlike Greece, Turkey isn’t doing so with Israel’s help since the two countries are estranged over the current Gaza war. Despite this, Turkey’s planned national multilayered air defense system is heavily inspired by Israel’s and its name even invokes the Iron Dome.

“If they (Israel) have an ‘Iron Dome,’ we will have a ‘Steel Dome,’” Erdogan declared on October 29. “We won’t look at them and say ‘why don’t we have this.’”

Unlike Greece, Turkey will likely develop its multilayered air defenses without substantial foreign assistance. While Ankara did acquire strategic S-400 Triumf long-range air defense missiles from Russia in 2019, they never entered service and won’t play any role in the integrated Steel Dome. Unlike Greece, Turkey also never acquired the Patriot missile from the United States, instead relying on modernized MIM-23 Hawk missiles. These are also unlikely to be part of the Steel Dome.

Turkey has steadily built up an array of homegrown air defense systems. Turkish state-run media has already speculated that existing Turkish systems integrated together could form a formidable multilayered air defense system.

For protection against low altitude threats, Turkey has systems like the Korkut anti-aircraft gun and Sungur man-portable air defense system, which Ankara built to replace its American FIM-92 Stingers. Against medium-altitude threats it has the Hisar O 100. Finally, for higher altitude threats, it has the Siper, which it claims can accurately intercept targets from 62 miles away.

Interestingly, just as Israel will help Greece develop multilayered air defenses, Turkey’s Rokestan missile manufacturer was contracted to develop a multilayered air defense system for Indonesia in 2022. However, few specific details are known about the type of systems Ankara will supply Jakarta for this project, aside from the fact it will be tailor-made to meet the Indonesian military’s particular requirements.

While Israel’s air defenses have exhibited some shortcomings during the current multi-front Middle East conflict, these concurrent Greek and Turkish projects are a reminder that allies and rivals alike covet similar battle-tested capabilities for themselves.