“TB2 Hunter” went bankrupt! The drone adventure in Greece did not even last a year

The summer of 2020 was a turning point in Turkish-Greek relations, as Turkey, which signed an agreement with Libya a year ago, sent a research ship to the eastern Mediterranean in the summer. Besides the research ship, there were also warships. As the Turkish and Greek armies faced each other in the Mediterranean, the fearful Athenian administration entered into an arms race. Greece, which has spent billions of euros on armaments over the past two years, has bought Rafale aircraft and warships from its ally, France. The Athens administration, which had placed an order to purchase F-35 aircraft from the United States, rented drones from Israel and placed them on the island of Eskiri in the middle of the Aegean Sea.

Sequential moves

The Greek Army has participated in exercises with almost every country, from Saudi Arabia to Italy, from the United Arab Emirates to Spain. The United States, which provides the most support to Athens, has sent aircraft carriers to the Souda base on Crete several times. The American army, which unloaded tanks, armored vehicles and weapons into the port of Alexandroupoli, gained permanent bases in many parts of Greece from north to south. Türkiye has raised the issue several times against those who established US bases in Greece.

Greece was upset

When armed unmanned aerial vehicles produced by Turkey changed the fate of many wars from Ethiopia to Ukraine, from Syria to Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh, the Greek side issued a red alert. While Turkey added new aircraft to the Bayraktar TB2, which international media describes as the star of armed drones, Greece also launched its own drone program.

Archytas, a surveillance drone, was introduced in September 2022. There is no record of it flying over the Aegean Sea yet. Greek media wrote that Archytas was able to take off and land vertically.

The Greek press also asked several times over the course of two years how to confront Turkish drones, whose fame has surpassed the world.
The Athens administration may purchase the MQ-9 Reaper drone, a long-range unmanned aircraft, from the USA. According to media reports, Washington will display MQ-9 Reapers to Athens next month.

“Thermal detectors don’t notice.”

There is another exceptional piece of news that cannot go unnoticed in the Greek media, where every statement issued by Turkey makes headlines. Last year, state television ERT demonstrated an anti-drone robot produced by an “inventor” in the central part of the country. ERT, which told its viewers that the robot system called Minotaur was programmed to destroy unmanned aerial vehicles, also published its interview with “inventor” Kostas Sokos. According to the news, the mobile robotic system invented by Sokos from Larissa carries a 300 kilowatt laser unit and has the ability to “blind” unmanned aerial vehicles entering Greek airspace. Furthermore, they cannot be detected by thermal detectors in helicopters.

The latest news, which meant that Russian Pantsir air defense systems would stop Turkish drones against which they were powerless, received wide coverage in the Greek media. The Greek media, which published the film “The Inventor” last year, reported that Turkey monitored the shipment of Greek army weapons to the islands in the Aegean Sea with drones.

busty

In a new development published by Greek economic newspapers, it was reported that the company that produced the Minotaur had gone bankrupt. Regarding the company called “Sokos Robots,” local media said, “Successive crises have caused financial problems for the company.”

The Greek press reported that Sokos’s profits fell from 2 million 670 thousand euros to 340 thousand euros and then to 255 thousand euros in recent years, and indicated that the company’s debts to banks increased from 12 million euros to 42 million euros. In this context, the company will be put up for sale at auction on December 13.