The need for radical changes in the Armed Forces, “at a rapid pace and with a sense of responsibility” to ensure the country’s survival, was emphasized by Defense Minister Nikos Dendias, speaking at the annual SAP conference held on Tuesday, December 9 at the Athens Concert Hall, where he discussed with journalist Apostolos Manggiridis the changes in the Greek Armed Forces and broader geopolitical developments.
Referring to what is changing in the Greek Armed Forces compared to the past, Mr. Dendias was clear: “The answer is one word: everything. And everything must change if we want to have the ability to survive in this new environment.”
Speaking about Greece’s geographical position, the minister noted: “It constitutes both a disadvantage and an advantage. It depends on how you utilize it. It’s a disadvantage because it places you in an area with major security challenges. It’s a disadvantage because next door there is a much larger country that has expressed a clear threat against you. It’s a disadvantage because we are close to many points of instability.”
But it is an advantage precisely because we are at a crossroads of continents, precisely because communication routes intersect. Precisely because they bring us into contact with different capabilities, with different civilizations, with different cultures, which can, if we use them correctly as elements, lead the country to significant economic development, which is required.
Regarding Greece’s human scientific capital and how it should be utilized in the new era of the Armed Forces, Mr. Dendias emphasized that this “is absolutely necessary” while referring to drones he added: “Let’s assume we are a country that has money to spend and let’s assume we go and buy five million small drones from abroad, store them and feel safe because we have a very large number of them. This is completely wrong. These specific ones, after a month, I’m not saying after a year, are outdated. If you don’t have the ability to intervene in their software and change the way they operate, so they can respond to field conditions as they have changed, because exactly the same thing is done by your potential opponent or will be done by your potential opponent, you have gained nothing.”
On the “Centaur” program: “A success story”
“You must develop the ability to manufacture even in the field, and that’s what we’re doing now,” he clarified.
Regarding the “Centaur” system, Mr. Dendias characterized it as “a success story,” because “Centaur” is the product, but, as he said, “more important than the product is the process.”
“Until now, the Armed Forces, like all Armed Forces of all countries, asked for products. They asked the political leadership, the government, to buy them planes, they asked to buy them ships. Now, we are creating a different approach. Not, especially for large platforms, but for systems, which may seem more modest, like drones, anti-drones, like cyber security elements, but are levers and multipliers,” the minister said.
And he explained: “We created an Innovation Directorate in the Greek Armed Forces. The Innovation Directorate is headed by a general. What does this general do? He asks the Armed Forces not to ask for products, but to pose questions, to pose problems. Example of a problem? The country that threatens me has a large number of drones, moving in swarms and I need to deal with it, what should I do about it? He takes this question and transfers it to another entity that we created, a Private Law Legal Entity, ELKAK. And ELKAK poses the question to the country’s innovation and defense industry ecosystem.
So it goes to companies, goes to research laboratories and tells them we have to deal with drone swarms of this type, what would you suggest as an answer? And a series of answers come.”
Dendias: “Five levels to the ‘Shield of Achilles'”
Regarding the “Shield of Achilles,” Mr. Dendias emphasized that “it has many levels,” just as Achilles’ Shield had five levels, specifically as he said “anti-aircraft, anti-missile, anti-drone, anti-ship and anti-submarine, under the sea.”
“All these encompass the country’s entire systems, ships, planes, tanks, soldiers. Anything you can imagine that has sensors that communicate with this holistic system, underneath there must be a unified Command and Control, which prioritizes the incoming threat, evaluates it and suggests the response to it. All this, if it doesn’t have Greek know-how and if we can’t monitor and develop it ourselves, we are lost,” the minister noted.
Regarding the soldier’s role, Mr. Dendias explained that he will “be a different soldier” and continued: “But mainly he will be differently trained and will do other things. The era when soldiers lined up next to each other as you see in movies and start firing, let’s forget that. The new soldier is in front of a screen, operates one, or two, or many more FPVs or other drones and these are the tools of battle, these are the modern bullet. The weapon is for his self-protection. And he must also be trained.”
“One of the elements of their training will be drone operation and of course some of them anti-drones. We will train them in a completely new framework,” he added.
Regarding salary increases for Armed Forces personnel, Mr. Dendias emphasized that “we are adding to create a virtuous example” with increases starting from 13%, 14% and reaching 53%, 54% and “they do not come from additional money given to us by the State General Accounting Office.”
“They come,” he added, “from internal savings.”
And he analyzed that “through savings we are creating the largest housing program ever made in Greece” with 10,000 new homes and repair of more than 7,000, “which collectively solve the housing problem of the country’s Armed Forces.”
“Europe must establish long-term planning and mainly change its culture”
Regarding Europe’s Defense, Mr. Dendias emphasized: “Europe must establish long-term planning and mainly change its culture, create a culture of self-sacrifice.”
Regarding the new US security strategy, Mr. Dendias clarified: “We are facing a new possibility. The ‘umbrella’ may not be over our heads. It brings us face to face with our responsibilities, tells us in the simplest way that you must be able on your own, to take care of your defense. You Europeans.”
“Therefore,” he added, “it forces us to see ourselves in the mirror and decide that we must do the obvious for any advanced society, to be able to defend the principles and values for which we exist.”
