Greece plans to close 187 of its 831 military camps as part of a comprehensive restructuring initiative aimed at redirecting resources towards military personnel, equipment, and advanced technologies. The closures will primarily affect facilities with limited operational significance and staffing levels at or below 30% of their authorised strength, enabling the armed forces to reinforce more strategically important units.
Defence Minister Nikos Dendias said the financial savings generated by the reorganisation would be reinvested in military personnel under an agreement with the State General Accounting Office. The broader restructuring programme is expected to save approximately €530 million ($595 million) over five years.
Dendias also proposed limiting naval crews’ time at sea to 200 days annually, with significantly higher compensation for deployments that exceed this threshold due to operational requirements.
Integration of Unmanned and Advanced Technologies
As part of the third phase of the restructuring, Greece intends to merge or disband 56 military units and 126 organisational structures, Dendias announced at a separate press conference.
The reforms include establishing an unmanned systems brigade in Litochoro, a dedicated Air Force base for drones and autonomous aircraft, and a Navy command overseeing unmanned and autonomous systems. Additional units will concentrate on cybersecurity, space applications, and human-source intelligence.
Defence Modernisation and US Arms Agreement
The restructuring coincides with Greece’s plan to invest €28 billion ($31 billion) in military modernisation through 2036. Defence spending currently accounts for nearly 3.5% of GDP, compared with 2.8% last year, when expenditure reached €6.9 billion ($7.74 billion).
Earlier this month, Athens also reached an agreement with the United States covering up to $4 billion in weapons acquisitions and F-16 upgrades. The package is expected to modernise older F-16 aircraft to the Viper configuration and supply advanced missiles and bombs for Greece’s F-16 Vipers, planned F-35 fleet, and Black Hawk helicopters.
