“This strategic collaboration marks a step forward in strengthening Greece’s undersea defense capabilities. The potential integration and co-production of BlueWhale deepens the bilateral ties and represents a leap toward technological autonomy for our country,” said Rear Admiral (ret.) Alexandros Diakopoulos, Chairman of the Hellenic Aerospace Industry, which will take on a pivotal role in BlueWhale’s production and design.

Diakopoulos added that BlueWhale’s deployment will offer Hellenic Armed Forces a vessel that “combines anti-submarine warfare, mine countermeasures and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.”

Developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), BlueWhale, is a large uncrewed underwater vehicle measuring 10.9 meters long, 1.12 meters in diameter and weighing 5.5 tons. It can perform a wide range of covert maritime missions, including intelligence-gathering above the sea surface, submarines, and underwater target detection, acoustic intelligence collection and search for and detect naval mines on the seabed.