Greece scrambled F-16 fighter jets on Friday as a drone, reportedly from Turkey, flew over one of the country’s airports, according to media and a military source.
The drone flew near the runway at Alexandroupolis airport as a passenger plane prepared to depart, and the “Greek F-16s that were on standby took off immediately,” a Greek state media outlet said.
“A Turkish drone illegally penetrated” Greek airspace near the northeastern port of Alexandroupolis, near the border with Turkey, “prompting the immediate air force mobilization,” the broadcaster reported.
Greece and Turkey are allies in NATO, but there are tensions between them over land and sea boundaries. Greece has seen an increasing number of drone incursions since last year.
The incident highlights the risk that increasingly frequent drone incursions could become a new source of friction between Greece and Turkey, allowing low-cost unmanned aircraft to test Greek air defenses while forcing Athens to respond with more expensive fighter deployments. The proximity of the latest incursion to Alexandroupolis airport, where a passenger aircraft was preparing to depart, also raises the potential consequences of such encounters beyond the military sphere. The key indicator to watch is whether Turkish drone activity continues to increase and whether incursions begin recurring around airports, military facilities, or other strategically sensitive locations. This could signal a more systematic effort to probe Greek response times and air-defense readiness. (AFP)
