Dan Zeevi

By integrating missiles, radars, command-and-control, and electronic warfare, Greece’s planned Achilles Shield creates a multi-layered, unified air defense network capable of matching each threat with the most effective response. This article looks at opportunities beyond the current 3.1 billion procurement of Israeli air defenses and Hellenic electronic systems.

Days after Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Pakistan signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, Houthi claims of strikes on Saudi targets put the pact’s collective-defense promise to an immediate test. This analysis examines the emerging multi-axis threat from Yemen, Iraq, and the Red Sea, and asks whether the new alliance can move from political declaration to credible military deterrence.

Rafael’s new L-SPIKE family expands the role of loitering munitions from close-in tactical support to long-range, persistent precision strike. The lightweight L-SPIKE 1X gives company commanders an organic “air force,” while the jet-powered L-SPIKE 4X combines missile speed, 40 km reach, and loitering persistence—reshaping how smaller units find, track, and engage targets.

Two rounds of war with Iran put Rafael Advanced Defense Systems' technology to the ultimate test — from precision munitions and the Spike missile family to layered air defenses and a hypersonic interceptor now in development. Backed by a record NIS 74 billion order backlog (about 25 billion US$), Rafael is also exporting rocket-propulsion technology to the US for the first time, through a new joint venture with Kratos.

For most of its four-year existence, Fire Point could rarely be described with confidence, until Eurosatory 2026, where the Kyiv-based missile and drone maker exhibited under its own name for the first time, laying out its entire declared missile family from the battle-proven FP-1/FP-2 strike drones to the previously unseen FP-7 and FP-9 ballistic systems. The bigger news broke alongside the hardware: an agreement with 12 nations to co-develop FREYJA, a European ground-based interceptor system pitched to do what Patriot does at a sixth to an eighth of the cost. Four years after a handful of friends with no defense background bought a shell company, Fire Point is now angling to be prime contractor on one of Europe's most ambitious missile-defense projects.

On the night of August 1, Ukraine shot down 83 percent of the drones Russia sent toward Kyiv — and just one of twenty-seven ballistic missiles. Three days after Washington committed $58.6 billion to fixing its Patriot shortage, the interceptor gap is playing out in real time over five districts of the Ukrainian capital.

Eurosatory 2026 opens in Paris this week as the largest edition in the exhibition's history — and its most urgent. The war in Ukraine has compressed procurement timelines, redirected defense investment, and placed the drone at the center of every platform decision on the floor. From hybrid propulsion systems designed to power active protection, to open-architecture fire control networks and Ukrainian cruise missiles seeking European buyers, the 2026 edition is less a trade show than a war market in real time.