The Shields of Achilles and David: A Greece–Israel Defense Architecture

A new defense architecture is taking shape in the Eastern Mediterranean as a key U.S. ally looks to strengthen regional stability and assume a greater share of the collective defense burden. Just as the mythological hero Achilles returned to battle with a new, five-layered shield wrought by a divine armorer, Greece’s aptly named Achilles’ Shield program would provide defense across five tiers and domains—against missiles, aircraft, drones, ships, and underwater threats—leveraging Israel’s combat-proven technologies. The United States should support this major project, and hold it out as a model for other partners to follow.

The Eastern Mediterranean is increasingly contested. Turkey’s persistent violations of exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and routine airspace as well as its coercive energy exploration erode Greek and Cypriot sovereignty. Russian hybrid warfare and naval operations threaten the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) southeastern flank, while Iranian proxies use Mediterranean waters and airspace as corridors for long-range strikes.

To protect Greece against these myriad threats, Achilles’ Shield would unify previously fragmented systems into a coherent multi-domain, multi‑tier air and maritime architecture. Supported by a planned $27 billion investment over the next decade, it is intended to allow Greece to withstand saturation attacks, defend its maritime approaches, and safeguard critical infrastructure. By turning to Israel as a partner in developing Achilles’ Shield, Greece is gaining access to deep operational experience with layered air and missile defense and combat‑proven systems, while also pursuing co-production arrangements that would allow Greece to manufacture Israeli technologies domestically and build indigenous defense industrial capacity.

Promoting Greece–Israel defense cooperation presents the United States with a strategic opportunity to shape a more integrated regional security architecture while advancing burden‑sharing goals emphasized in the recently published National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy. Greece’s commitment to modernizing its defenses signals a partner willing to assume greater responsibility. Including Israeli systems within Achilles’ Shield could also enhance coordination between U.S. European Command (EUCOM) and U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), building ad hoc cooperation into a durable framework for shared situational awareness and joint defensive action.

If successfully developed, the Greece-Israel defense relationship around Achilles’ Shield could serve as a replicable model for U.S. strategy elsewhere—demonstrating how capable allies can jointly assume greater responsibility for regional security through integrated defense architectures, co-production agreements, and coordinated operational concepts that reduce demands on U.S. forces while strengthening deterrence. To advance and build on the Achilles’ Shield project, the United States should:

• Treat the Eastern Mediterranean as a strategic region to eliminate bureaucratic seams and strengthen coordination across military command areas of responsibility (AOR).
• Mount a diplomatic effort to drive integration that would resolve transfer, co‑production, and intellectual property‑sharing challenges.
• Deploy air and maritime defense assets to Cyprus that support better intelligence-sharing and protection.
• Grow multilateral defense frameworks by expanding existing trilaterals and the 3+1 framework into formal planning groups, shared concepts, and integrated exercises with Greek and Israeli forces to develop shared doctrine and interoperability.
• Enhance energy and infrastructure security cooperation by integrating U.S., Greek, and Israeli capabilities to protect undersea cables, offshore energy assets, and critical maritime infrastructure.