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The exercise, held around 21 October 2026, focused on acceptance firings of Israeli SPIKE NLOS and ER guided missiles by the Hellenic Navy. Greek vessels, including a Machitis-class gunboat and a Mark V special operations craft, launched the missiles. The drill culminated in the sinking of the decommissioned Greek frigate Bouboulina<\/em> (F-463), which was struck by SPIKE missiles and then finished off by a heavy SUT torpedo fired from a Greek submarine.<\/p>\n Senior officers attended the event, including Hellenic National Defence General Staff Chief General Dimitrios Houpis, Hellenic Navy Chief Vice Admiral Dimitrios-Eleftherios Kataras, and Israeli Navy Chief Vice Admiral Eyal Harel. Frigates, submarines, missile boats, helicopters, special operations units, and air assets from both countries participated. The exercise also served to improve interoperability between the two navies.<\/p>\n Coverage in Turkish media was notably critical. CNN T\u00fcrk ran the headline \u201cMissiles from Israel, firings from Greece! Dirty alliance north of Crete,\u201d framing the drill as heightened military activity in the Eastern Mediterranean and highlighting Greece\u2019s use of Israeli weapons systems. The newspaper Ak\u015fam<\/em> used similar language, calling the cooperation a \u201cdirty alliance in the Eastern Mediterranean\u201d and repeating the phrase \u201cMissiles from Israel, firings from Greece.\u201d<\/p>\n The pro-government newspaper Star<\/em> was even more pointed, headlining: \u201cA move that will increase tension in the Aegean! Greece fired the missiles it bought from Israel.\u201d It focused on the operational use of the SPIKE NLOS systems and linked the exercise to closer Athens-Tel Aviv military ties.<\/p>\n By contrast, Habert\u00fcrk<\/em> and the Anadolu Agency adopted a more restrained tone, simply reporting that Greece and Israel had conducted a joint training exercise and concentrating on its military aspects without using the \u201cdirty alliance\u201d label.<\/p>\n The drill took place a day after the parliament in eastern Libya ratified a 2019 maritime memorandum with Turkey\u2014an agreement rejected by Greece and condemned by Israel. It also fits into a broader pattern of deepening Greek-Israeli defense cooperation, which includes recent deals such as the multi-billion-euro \u201cAchilles Shield\u201d air and missile defense package.<\/p>\n Turkish outlets presented the exercise as a signal of increased military coordination between Athens and Jerusalem in a region already marked by competing maritime claims and energy projects.<\/p>\n READ MORE: EU Moves to Strengthen Frontex With 30,000 Border Officers and Faster Deportations<\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n