Powerful defence system due within the year

The military plans to beef up its air defence systems within the year, the defence minister said on Tuesday.

Michalis Giorgallas was speaking to the state broadcaster about the National Guard’s armaments programme for 2024.

He said that “within the year” the defence ministry will announce decisions regarding the acquisition of a new air defence system – one even more “powerful” than Israel’s Iron Dome.

Though he did not name the system under consideration, the minister may have been referring to the Barak MX – a system developed by Israel Aerospace Industries.

Earlier media reports said the National Guard was looking at the Barak MX to complement – or replace – its Russian-made BUK-M1 medium-range system.

According to Israel Aerospace Industries, the Barak MX can deal with any threat – including fighter jets, cruise missiles, UAVs, helicopters and gliding bombs. It comes in multiple configurations, with a maximum range of 150km.

On the National Guard’s purchase of Airbus H145M attack helicopters, Giorgallas said that these would soon become airborne over Cyprus skies.

The Cypriot military decided to sell off to Serbia its fleet of Mi-35 Soviet-era helicopters, replacing them with at least six Airbus H145M – with an option for buying six more.

Commenting on the situation in the buffer zone in Cyprus, Giorgallas said lately the Turkish side has adopted a “revisionist stance” with a series of provocations aimed at creating “grey zones”.

The government, he added, tackles the issue with a three-pronged strategy – keeping the international community informed about Turkish encroachments in the buffer zone, working with the United Nations, and through practical measures such as heightened monitoring across the Green Line.

In August three UN peacekeepers were treated for minor injuries after scuffles with Turkish Cypriot police. The UN personnel were attempting to block the unauthorised construction by the Turkish side of a road through the buffer zone between the villages of Pyla and Arsos.

In late November Turkish armed soldiers carried out an incursion in the buffer zone at Ayios Dhometios in Nicosia to place a camera on an abandoned house.