National Defense Minister Nikos Dendias on Friday paid a visit to the Hellenic Navy frigate ‘HS Spetsai’ at the Salamina naval base, before its sets sail for the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to participate in the EUNAVFOR operation ‘Aspides’.
Dendias was accompanied by Chief of Hellenic National Defence General Staff, General Dimitrios Choupis, and Chief of Hellenic Navy General Staff, Vice Admiral Dimitrios-Eleftherios Kataras.
The minister was briefed by the frigate’s captain on its mission, and then addressed the frigate’s captain, officers, and staff on the importance of the European operation ‘Aspides’ to protect merchant ships from attacks.
Aspides, he said, “are a step in the direction of creating a European Defense Branch,” and he added that Greece “has an absolutely vested interest in the creation of a common European defense policy and a possibility of implementing this European defense policy through European forces.”
Dendias referred to the preceding missions for Aspides by the frigates ‘Psara’ and ‘Hydra’, and he noted that Psara had successfully used the pioneering anti-drone system ‘Centaur’ by the Hellenic Aerospace Industry. “It is the first anti-drone system of such capability that Greece manufactures and which was utilized and its reliability checked under real battle conditions,” the minister added.
He also revealed that he will soon present to Parliament “the anti-drone dome that will be created in Greece,” adding that Greece “does not have Armed Forces for parades and rituals. Greece has Armed Forces because this is a condition to its survival.”
