Intercepting ballistic missiles is an easy task for the Greek air defense – How the Patriot missiles, the Scalp and other systems of the Army will respond to a potential attack.
Vassilis Skoularakos
The footage published on Wednesday morning (19/10) showing the launch of a short-range ballistic missile by the Turkish armed forces caused concern and concern.
As reported by the Bloomberg agency, the test launch of the missile took place on Tuesday (17/10) over the Black Sea, from a mobile platform at an airport near the port of Rizounda. The missile covered 561 kilometers and reportedly fell on the coast of the port of Sinop.
The test launch of the ballistic missile, always according to the publication, was done by the company Roketsan, while it is pointed out that the secret project of developing precision munitions in Turkey has been ongoing for years. The Turkish authorities, however, refused to reveal any information about the project.
Was the launch faked?
Speaking to Newsbomb.gr and Vangelis Kiulhatzis, the international expert Alexandros Despotopoulos quoted the scenario that the test launch of the Tayfun ballistic missile did not actually take place.
“When these tests are carried out, the ballistic missiles have specific colors so that the cameras can record them,” explained Mr. Despotopoulos, stressing that in the present case, nothing like that happened.
“We are probably talking about a fake launch purely for political reasons and not for operational reasons,” said the experienced international expert, commenting that “after all, the treasure was… coal!”.
This scenario, as Mr. Despotopoulos said, is very likely to be true and is a move to impress the Turkish side on the one hand to “scare” Greece and on the other hand to put pressure on the USA for the supply of weapons.
How can Greece react if a ballistic missile is launched?
Leaving aside the terrifying reports that want Turkish ballistic missiles to strike from Ankara to Athens, let’s see how our country can really react to such an eventuality.
As Mr. Despotopoulos says speaking to Newsbomb.gr, intercepting a ballistic missile is an easy task for the Greek air defense. “Especially from the Patriot missiles that Greece has and Turkey cannot acquire,” notes the internationalist. “If it happened, it doesn’t cause much concern. We are looking at it, but operationally it is of minor importance”, he emphasized.
In fact, Mr. Despotopoulos concluded by saying that a Patriot reaches 4 times the speed of sound, which for a ballistic missile “is a midsummer night’s dream”, he said characteristically.
The truth is that Greece and the Armed Forces already have operational air defense solutions against ballistic threats. In addition to the terrifyingly powerful Patriot missiles that are deployed in the central and southern Aegean, our country has the ability to immediately retaliate in the form of SCALP cruise missiles carried by the Mirage 2000-5 fighters and the powerful Rafale of the Air Force.
At the same time, the Army has the ATACMS missiles fired by MLRS PEP launchers.
Also, with the acquisition of the world’s leading frigates, the Navy’s FDI Belh@rra, the ASTER 30 missiles will have significant capabilities to intercept the entire spectrum of air threats in the Aegean. After all, this is the reason why the leadership of the Navy insisted on acquiring state-of-the-art ships with excellent capabilities in area air defense.
See the first anti-ballistic shot of the Greek Armed Forces that took place a year ago. The video was published on his YouTube channel by the experienced military editor of the show “With Virtue and Courage”, Apollonas Leontaritis:
Clearly, the effort to react to this type of threats is not exhausted and our country is required to move quickly in the armament strengthening of all Branches and the acquisition of weapon systems that will respond to all modern challenges.
