Greece to deploy Patriots to protect Bulgaria amid Iran war fears

Greece’s Defence Minister Nikos Dendias said Greece will deploy a Patriot missile battery and two F-16 fighter jets in the north of the country to help provide additional air and ballistic missile defence coverage for Bulgaria.

• Greece to deploy a Patriot missile battery and two F-16 jets in northern Greece to help strengthen Bulgaria’s air and missile defence.
• The move follows a request from Bulgaria as tensions rise amid the escalating war in the Middle East.
• Greek military officers will also be sent to Bulgaria’s operations centre as NATO increases air-defence readiness along its southeastern flank.

Greece will deploy a Patriot missile battery and two F-16 jets in the north of the country to help defend neighbouring Bulgaria as the Middle East war flares, Defence Minister Nikos Dendias said on Friday.

Greece was ready “to help, if necessary, to preserve the sense of security in the wider region,” Dendias said in a social media post.

The government deployed Patriot missiles on Thursday to the island of Karpathos in the Dodecanese archipelago, near Turkey’s western coast, saying it wanted to strengthen the anti-ballistic protection of Greek territory.

Greece has, since the start of the war, also sent two frigates and four F-16 fighters to Cyprus after it was the target of an attack by an Iranian-made drone.

“A Patriot missile battery will be transferred in the coming hours… to the north of Greece to ensure anti-ballistic coverage for a large part of Bulgarian territory,” Dendias said on ERT public television.

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In addition, a pair of F-16 fighter jets will be transferred to an airport in northern Greece with the specific mission of offering additional aerial coverage for Bulgaria, Dendias added.

Two senior Greek military officers will be sent to Bulgaria’s military operations centre.

Dendias said Greece would provide “all possible assistance for Bulgaria’s ballistic missile defence against Iran”, but did not give further details.

The minister said he had spoken with Bulgaria’s Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov following a formal request for help from the Sofia government.

Bulgaria’s defence ministry said the two ministers had also discussed NATO’s order to strengthen “the preparation level of air-defence systems along the southeast flank” of the alliance. The ministry said Dendias would soon visit Sofia.