Israel won't give Greece the source code for its weapons. Who writes the shield's control software, Tel Aviv hasn't explained

Greek Minister of National Defense Nikos Dendias said in July that the Greek army would not acquire a system to which it did not have the source code, and he emphasized this particularly with regard to command and control. In the Sunday, September 6 edition of the daily Kathimerini, the head of the Israeli Ministry of Defense's Missile Defense Organization, Moshe Patel, was asked directly whether the source code was part of the €3.035 billion Achilles' Shield contract. He answered that it was not, because the source code was not part of the usage license. To Vima ↗

The Israeli Ministry of Defense has since issued two clarifications. According to the second one, Greece will not receive the source code underlying the Israeli weapons, but the control software for the entire shield is to be written by Greek companies with Israeli support and will remain under exclusive Greek control. However, no one has reconciled this with what the same ministry announced on the day the contract was signed.

What the minister actually said in July

Dendias said this on July 23 while presenting the ministry's arms programs, in response to a question from the daily To Vima. His wording, however, was more cautious than what was later quoted. "The Greek armed forces are not acquiring and will not acquire a system — except in very specific cases which I am not aware of at this moment, but in this area one must always leave a special reservation — to which we would not have the source code. Especially in command and control, this is an absolutely key element of national existence, not national sovereignty," the minister said. To Vima ↗

The contract was signed on August 31 in Tel Aviv, along with a separate €26 million contract for an anti-drone system. That same day, the Israeli Ministry of Defense, in its own press release, listed what the package contains, and one of the items refers to a new national command and control system that will unify the full range of air defense capabilities and will be developed by Rafael. Israeli Ministry of Defense ↗

Also read: Greece buys Israeli missile shield for three billion euros. It will also incorporate Patriots, whose missiles Ukraine is requesting

Sunday's "no" and two clarifications afterward

The first clarification came that same Sunday evening, a few hours after the interview appeared. In it, the Israeli Ministry of Defense spoke of a transfer of know-how and of jointly using software and technology with the Greek armed forces. This did not settle the question, since jointly using software and handing over source code are not the same thing, and Greek media noticed this immediately. Efimerida ton Syntakton ↗

The opposition spoke up on Monday. PASOK's national defense spokesman Michalis Katrinis recalled the July promise as well as that sentence from the Israeli press release about Rafael, and asked directly: "So where is the truth? In the announcements of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, or in Mr. Dendias's grand statements? Does the source code of the Achilles' Shield belong to Greece?" According to him, his party submitted a parliamentary question on September 1 and is waiting for the ministry's written answer. Efimerida ton Syntakton ↗

The second clarification came on Tuesday, September 8, and this time it was specific. According to it, Israel will provide technologies and operational experience so that Greek companies can develop the central command and control software. "The Greek source code developed under the program, along with any modifications and additions to it, will remain under exclusive Greek control and will be adapted to Greek operational requirements," the statement reads. It concludes with a sentence that names the dispute most directly: "The claims made in recent days about the source code underlying Israel's own operational systems have nothing to do with the Achilles' Shield contract." Protothema ↗ Efimerida ton Syntakton ↗

What those statements didn't answer

Israel is thus separating two things. Greece will not get the code underlying Israel's own weapons, and according to Tel Aviv this was never even the subject of the contract. The code for the command system is to be built from scratch in Greece and belong to Greece.

But Patel was asked specifically about the Achilles' Shield and answered that the source code was not part of the license. And the August 31 press release states that the command center will be developed by Rafael. Neither of the two clarifications explained how these claims square with that third one — namely, who is actually writing the software and exactly what part of it will be Greek. It's possible they don't contradict each other and that it's a division of labor between the main contractor and Greek companies, but neither side has explained this yet.

The daily To Vima summed it up by saying that what matters is not who will formally own the rights to the software. What matters is whether the Greek armed forces will be able to independently modify the shield's critical functions, connect new Greek or foreign systems to it, and carry out the necessary upgrades without depending each time on the manufacturer or on the Israeli side. The Greek Ministry of Defense answers this with an unequivocal yes. A source who confirmed the contents of the contract to the paper, but did not wish to be named, claims that the Greeks will have both access and the ability to make changes, precisely with regard to the command system. The text of the contract has not been published, so this can only be verified in practice. The system is to be delivered in stages until June 2029, with the anti-drone component arriving first. To Vima ↗

The story reached beyond Greece even without that second half. The Bosnian outlet Klix.ba ran it under a headline about Tel Aviv's hidden card and about Israel telling Greece it would not get the source code. The Israeli clarification about the Greek code is not in that article. Klix.ba ↗

Slovakia bought the same layer

For a Slovak reader, this isn't a distant Greek issue. The middle layer of the Achilles' Shield is the Barak MX system from Israel Aerospace Industries, and Slovakia ordered exactly that. Israel announced the sale in December 2024, worth approximately €560 million, and according to Reuters it is the largest defense export contract between the two countries. Robert Kaliňák spoke at the time of six batteries in the first phase and of the Slovak defense industry being able to produce the ammunition. STVR ↗

Slovakia ordered the command layer elsewhere. In February 2025, the Danish company Terma won the contract for the BMD-Flex software and for the systems integration meant to connect Slovakia's Barak MX to the North Atlantic Alliance's air and missile defense. The Danish army chose the same software for its very short-range air defense. What Slovakia has agreed regarding access to the Barak software itself is not public, and network integration and the right to modify the software are not the same question. Defence Industry Europe ↗

That integration is contractually provided for, however, does not mean it is finished. In May of this year, Jaroslav Naď claimed that the battery deployed in Slovakia does not belong to us, is merely on loan, and that the system is switched off. Kaliňák replied that this was known information and that the company had accommodated the ministry to avoid delays, while conceding that some of the components are not ours. SITA ↗

That same May controversy included a technical detail that's easy to overlook. At the time, Barak lacked certification within the North Atlantic Alliance's collective air defense. Security analyst Vladimír Bednár told STVR's Rádiožurnál that without integration into the alliance's central air defense system in Europe, the system is not fully functional and essentially cannot be deployed to protect Slovak airspace. Whether the situation has changed since then, the Ministry of Defense has not publicly announced. STVR ↗

Greece and Slovakia thus face the same task: how to connect a purchased Israeli weapon into a network chosen by the buyer, not the manufacturer. In Athens, this is a public dispute. In Slovakia, it is not publicly discussed, and so far only the Danish integration contract is known.

Limits of this view

The first limitation is sourcing. The text of the contract has not been published, and all claims about its content come either from statements by two ministries that have an interest in making the deal look good, or from an unnamed source of one newspaper. This article cannot say which version is accurate. It can say that the publicly available statements have not been reconciled with each other and that no one has explained the division of labor between Rafael and the Greek companies.

The second limitation is political. Turkey is the unspoken addressee of the entire Greek shield, and a story about Athens buying a defense system it doesn't control suits Ankara. That doesn't make it untrue, but it explains why its first half travels faster than the second. The Bosnian pickup above is an example of that.

The third limitation concerns the opposition's version of the dispute. Katrinis's quotation of Dendias's July statement is shortened, and it drops the minister's own reservation about specific cases. Dendias promised something less categorical than how it now sounds from both sides.

Illustrative photo: launch of a David's Sling missile during a test. Photo Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson's Unit, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

What hotinfo is watching