Relations between Greece and Turkiye, both of which are NATO members, are once again becoming strained. Athens has reported a sharp increase in Turkish military aircraft incursions into Greek airspace. While such incidents previously involved fighter jets, Ankara is now increasingly relying on drones.
According to Kathimerini, Since the beginning of the year, the Greek military has recorded 433 airspace violations, compared to 255 in all of 2025. These violations involve Turkish Bayraktar, Aksungur, and ANKA-S drones, which are intercepted by Greek F-16 and Mirage 2000-5 pilots.
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However, this is hardly cost-effective. According to the publication, an hour of F-16 flight time costs Athens approximately €20,000, while flying a Bayraktar TB2 for an hour could cost up to ten times less.
Despite this, the General Staff of the Greek Armed Forces believes considers such interceptions part of training exercises for pilots and air defense forces. The use of fighter jets is also explained by the need for visual identification of the intruder. However, from an economic standpoint, the balance still does not favor Greece.
From Defense Express we would like to add that the Greek Ministry of Defense appears to be taking a rather passive approach to the issue of UAVs. The country's armed forces have only a small number of reconnaissance drones in service, the newest of which are the V-BATs from American Shield AI.
However, Greece currently has no reconnaissance and strike drones at all. The third Heron 1 UAV system will only be capable of carrying munitions in the future. At the same time, this UAV belongs to the same category as the Bayraktar TB2.
Athens is also ignoring any proposals to develop unmanned autonomous fighter drones. Yet such systems appear to be the most effective means of patrolling airspace.
In contrast, Turkiye is already far more advanced in this field, with Baykar's Kizilelma capable of launching air-to-air missiles from internal weapons bays.
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