1 October

Greece’s Government Council for National Security (KYSEA) has approved eight defence procurement and support programmes worth approximately €500 million, covering personal protective equipment, military communications, transport aircraft, unmanned systems and submarine maintenance.

The decisions were taken during a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on 30 September. The programmes had been presented to the relevant parliamentary committee on 29 September, with four concerning the Hellenic Army, three the Hellenic Air Force and one the Hellenic Navy.

However, the procurement approvals were absent from the official statement issued by government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis. His announcement focused on Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis’s briefing on developments in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East and Ukraine, alongside Greece’s agenda for its presidency of the United Nations Security Council.

The statement also referred to discussions on deploying national forces to meet international obligations. Defence Minister Nikos Dendias subsequently referred to the procurement decisions when leaving the meeting and announced a further one-month extension of the Greek Patriot battery’s deployment in Saudi Arabia.

The largest programme concerns follow-on support and an avionics upgrade for the Hellenic Air Force’s C-27J Spartan tactical transport aircraft. Budgeted at €241,510,528, the five-year agreement with Italy’s Leonardo SpA covers seven aircraft, including the return to operational service of one aircraft.

A separate four-year programme, valued at €18 million, will provide follow-on support for the C-130B/H Hercules transport fleet through the United States Foreign Military Sales mechanism, under a Case Type Q arrangement.

The third Air Force programme concerns support and upgrades for Israel Aerospace Industries’ HERON 1 unmanned aircraft systems, with a budget of €3,715,483.

For the Hellenic Army, three procurement programmes will supply individual protective equipment. A four-year acquisition covers 40,000 M25 load-bearing and ballistic plate-carrier sets, budgeted at €19.84 million, including VAT and statutory deductions.

Another programme provides for 20,300 pairs of individual ballistic plates at a total cost of €10,068,800, also including VAT and deductions, over five years.

The Army will additionally acquire 36,000 ballistic helmets through a three-year programme worth €16,963,200. The helmets will be supplied in high-cut and low-cut configurations, with sizes ranging from Small to Extra Large.

The fourth Army programme concerns broadband and modern communications systems from INTRACOM Defense. Its budget stands at €70 million, including VAT and statutory deductions.

For the Hellenic Navy, the council approved a seven-year scheduled maintenance programme covering all four Type 214 submarines and the submarine OKEANOS (S 118). Valued at €120,737,280, the contract is to be awarded to Skaramangas Shipyards.

Together, the eight listed budgets amount to approximately €500.84 million. Aircraft support and submarine maintenance account for the largest share, while the Army programmes combine communications procurement with substantial purchases of protective equipment.

The package therefore spans both new equipment acquisitions and support for existing platforms. Its implementation periods range from three to seven years, reflecting the different delivery and maintenance requirements across the services. The approvals establish a substantial programme of expenditure, although the official government announcement offered no breakdown of the individual defence decisions.