UASUV 2017 Med Unmanned Vehicles Technology | Page 12

Address
Mr Tassos ROZOLIS
President,
Hellenic Manufacturers of Defense Material Association – (SEKPY)
Managing Director, AKMON SA
Dear Minister,
Admirals and Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
First of all I would like to thank the organizers of UASUV 2017 and personally Mr Vasilis Zomenos, for
the great opportunity you are giving to the Hellenic Defense Industry to present our views that can
bring development and growth along with a new perspective.
My name is Tassos Rozolis and I am the president of SEKPY (Hellenic Defense and Security
Manufacturers Association) and CEO of AKMON S.A (Greek Defense Electronics Company).
SEKPY is the non-profit association of Hellenic Defence Manufacturers. It was established in 1982 and
since then its main role is to Support and Promote the interest of the Hellenic Defence Industry in the
domestic and international market. It consists of more than 100 member-companies some of which
happen to be among the biggest in the Greek Defense Industry. However most of the members are
private SMEs which are not only an endless source of innovation but also the backbone of the Greek
and European economy.
There has been a widely spread simile according to which Drones are like Male Bees. And although this
was kind of misleading for me, thinking that male bees are the lazy ones …I later on realized that there
is nothing lazy about either the bees or the UAVs. They are both very useful and committed to
performing a very specific role.
While “drone” as a word has been broadly used by the Media, the correct term is UAV (unmanned
aerial vehicle) or UAS (unmanned aerial system). And the reason why this term works better is because
it encompasses not only the flying machine but the whole integrated solution which also includes the
ground operating controlling systems.
Although UAVs have been in use from 1924, it has been only the last few years that we are witnessing a
booming sales expansion both for military and commercial purposes. A market surge-over of at least 11
billion USD is expected globally for the UAVs up until 2020 driven by regulatory & legislatory
improvement, continuously decreasing component costs, and - most important - ongoing innovation.
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