The ceremony for the donation of the advanced technology unmanned V-BAT aircraft to the Supreme Military Command of the Interior and Islands (ASDEN) by the charitable foundation “Athanassios K. Laskaridis” took place in the presence of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Minister of National Defense Nikos Dendias, as well as the Chiefs of General Staff.
A move that takes place during the period when the largest – as the Prime Minister has characterized it – reform of the Greek Armed Forces is underway within the framework of the “Agenda 2030” with the aim of strengthening the country in matters of aerial surveillance and target detection.
These are systems that, as the Minister of National Defense noted, among other things, “are subsystems of this holistic approach called the ‘Achilles’ Shield'”.
Mitsotakis thanked Panos Laskaridis, saying that this is “another significant donation for the strengthening of our Armed Forces.”
Mitsotakis: “These systems substantially upgrade our capabilities”
“The system presented today has significant operational capabilities. One can see these videos and feel that it is an image from a science fiction scenario, but it is real. A huge technological progress has been made, especially in the issues of aerial surveillance and target detection, a progress, obviously, which cannot leave the Greek Armed Forces indifferent,” the Prime Minister stated.
He also added that “both of these systems substantially upgrade our capabilities. They allow us to become familiar with the most advanced version of the technology that exists. They allow us to test, quickly in the field, systems that we can later increase. And this is the advantage of these donations: that we can relatively quickly acquire such systems, test them in the field and then determine to what extent we want to invest more in them.”
Subsequently, Mitsotakis made a special mention of Panos Laskaridis, who has supported the Armed Forces over time and especially the Hellenic Navy.
