Dendias: The Armed Forces need to enter a new era

The Armed Forces need to enter a new era, which the government calls “Armed Forces 2030”, National Defence Minister Nikos Dendias said in an interview with the newspaper “Kathimerini” published on Sunday. He noted that this was the reason why recent changes in the armed forces leadership had gone beyond the chiefs of staff for a more comprehensive approach. Dendias also stressed the need to develop domestic arms production capability, rather than buy “everything off the shelf abroad and produce nothing”. He noted that recent conflicts in Ukraine, Caucasus and the Gaza Strip have shown that the doctrines that the Greek armed forces currently follows need to be studied and to a great degree revised, as a radically different approach is needed. “Ukraine showed clearly that decision-making responsibility has to be at a lower level, with lower and middle-ranking officers having the capability to act on their own and make decisions,” he said. Officers expressing concerns regarding the best decision must also be rewarded, he added, while noting that the Hellenic Air Force needs a properly functioning Hellenic Aerospace Industry. Dendias pledged to soon table legislation that concerns innovation in the Armed Forces, linking the country’s production capacity with the needs of the General Staffs and said the government’s aim was to create an ecosystem “entirely different from what has existed until now”. He stressed that it was intolerable that domestic defence industry production should be “zero or near zero” in a country that spends so much on weapons systems to serve the needs of its Armed Forces.