Apart from boosting the procurement of defense equipment through imports, including by buying used ones, Greece, which is in conflict with Turkey, has not forgotten efforts to develop defense equipment domestically, especially in the combat drone segment - Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV).
To be precise, the Land of the Gods recently announced its first indigenous combat drone project, the Grypas.
Quoted from defensenews.com (25/1/2023), announced on January 13, 2023, Grypas is the second (drone) platform that emerged from domestic production.
Previously in September 2022, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of National Defense, Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI), in collaboration with the Universities of Aristotle, Thessaly and Democritus, launched Greece's first national drone, Archytas, which is a reconnaissance drone concept.
While the Archytas was intended for reconnaissance and surveillance over the Greek islands, the Grypas served as a multirole drone equipped with weapons for combat missions.
“Universities will contribute their knowledge in specific and defined fields, especially those related to the non-operational parts of drones. The certification, integration and mission aspects will be carried out exclusively by the Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI)," said Nikos Koklas, HAI's director of research, design and new program.
As a combat drone, Grypas will have a larger payload than Archytas, plus Grypas comes with a modular design.
The first phase of the Grypas project is scheduled to be completed in the next two years, namely in 2025 it is expected that the first prototype will be launched.
Announcing the program in January, Defense Minister Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos hinted at tensions between Greece and Turkey.
“Our neighboring country (Turkey) has spent a lot of time, more than 10 years developing its own drone product. However, I think we can move faster," said the Greek Defense Minister.
Grypas' first customers were the Greek armed forces. Once operational, the military will likely be able to deploy Grypas at the recently modernized Larissa Air Base and currently home to the Heron and Pegasus II drone squadrons.
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According to information, Grypas was designed with a wingspan of twenty meters, a takeoff weight of about 3 tons, a maximum operating altitude of 9,144 meters, and was powered by turbojet engines.
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