Athens: With the Greek Navy’s new frigate programme underway, the recently held defence exhibition – DEFEA became a magnet for the major shipbuilding industries on both sides of the Atlantic. The French Naval Group, the Dutch shipyards Damen, the British Babcock, the Italian Fincantieri, the German ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems and the American Lockheed Martin were exhibitors at DEFEA and made constant contacts with the Ministry of National Defence.

It should be noted that the Minister of National Defence, Mr. Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos, referred to the programme, emphasising: “We are going to purchase four frigates that we believe it is necessary some of these ships to be built in Greek shipyards and we must work for that. Not only to have them built in our shipyards, but to have more defence industries that will take part in their construction”.