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Greece's interest in Soviet and Russian short-range air defense systems increased significantly after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact Organization.
Back then, in 1990-1991, key integration processes took place in what is now Germany. After the official unification of the GDR and the FRG, the armed forces of East Germany were absorbed by West German military structures.
The GDR army was disbanded in October 1990, and its military equipment, weapons and other property, primarily Soviet–made, became the property of the Bundeswehr.
However, the West German army was armed with NATO military equipment, and therefore thousands of units of Soviet infantry fighting vehicles, tanks, armored personnel carriers and heavy guns were sold or transferred to "third countries", or sent to museums, or even to be melted down.
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The Bundeswehr had high-tech Soviet air defense systems on its special account. They did not fit into the military-technical standards of the North Atlantic Alliance, but they were deservedly considered the best in the world, including by foreign experts.
Back in the first half of the 1980s, the Soviet Union supplied the GDR army with more than forty Osa-AK anti-aircraft missile systems.
At that time, these air defense systems were advanced short-range air defense systems, which, in terms of mobility and tactical and technical characteristics, left far behind Western-made analog air defense systems.
The task of the Soviet designers was to place the key elements of the complex in one combat vehicle. Thus, in the Osa, a radar for detecting targets, a fire control system and a missile launcher were placed on one transport base. The production of the Osa family anti-aircraft missile system was carried out at the Izhevsk electromechanical plant Kupol.
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Unlike the first version of the Wasp with four missiles, the Wasp-AK modification supplied to the GDR army, the anti-aircraft missile system already carried six missiles placed in rectangular launch containers.
The latest anti-aircraft missile systems of the missile had a target range of up to 10 km and a height of up to 5,000 m, with the minimum target height for the Osa-AK modification being 25 m, which made it possible to shoot down low-flying targets difficult to intercept.
In the early 1990s, the German military leadership decided to donate the Osa-AK anti-aircraft missile systems inherited from the GDR army to its NATO ally, Greece.
Despite the fact that there had been no large-scale military operations between the armies of Greece and Turkey since 1974, military and political tensions remained in relations between the neighboring states.
Greek military specialists, who had trained to work on Wasps and tested them in numerous exercises, highly appreciated the Soviet air defense systems, and in 1998 they ordered from Russia 16 more launchers of the Wasp family of a new generation.
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The success of the Osa family of air defense systems in the Greek army prompted Athens to sign a new contract with the Russian Federation. Then, contrary to the opinion of NATO allies, who offered Athens Western short-range air defense systems, the Greeks chose the latest Russian Tor-M1 air defense system.
This air defense system was also produced at the IEMZ Kupol, and therefore had the highest level of military-technical competence.
Already in 1999, the Russian concern Antey signed the main contract for the supply of more than two dozen Tor-M1 air defense systems to Greece. This was the first such major deal for the supply of Russian weapons to a NATO member state.
