Greece has canceled the contract with Russia and plans to abandon Soviet anti-aircraft missile systems “Wasp” and “Tor-M1”
The Greek Defense Forces are armed with Soviet Tor-M1 and Osa anti-aircraft missile systems. However, Athens is suspending their service, according to the Greek edition of Pro News.
What is known
Information about this leaked to the media by accident. The information about the cancellation of the contract with Russia became public because the Greek parliament mistakenly published the contents of a secret document.
The text says that Tor-M1 and Osa-AK will not undergo maintenance and repair, which was supposed to be done by Russian specialists. The canceled contract for the maintenance of anti-aircraft missile systems amounted to almost $110 million.
This probably means that Greece is ready to completely abandon the use of Soviet weapons. Journalists suggest that air defense systems may be delivered to Ukraine with the assistance of third countries.
The Greek Armed Forces have almost 40 “Wasp” anti-aircraft missile systems in various modifications. The Wasp-AK systems were purchased from Germany along with 924 missiles with a range of up to 10 km in 1992. Six years later, the Balkan country purchased a batch of complexes from Russia worth almost $110 million.
Greece also owns 21 Tor-M1 air defense systems. These complexes were purchased from Russia in 1999 for $552 million. The contract also included the supply of 368 anti-aircraft missiles.
Now Greece will look for a replacement for the Tor-M1 and Wasp. The total cost of these anti-aircraft missile systems is currently estimated at more than $1 billion.
