National Defense Minister Nikos Dendias presented a series of measures for transparency in armaments on Thursday, following Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ briefing of Parliament on defense.
They include the following:
-The appointment of a general armaments director and a deputy director by the military (Hellenic National Defence General Staff), instead of by the minister.
– A regulation will be introduced in Parliament to include a permanent legal consultant of the state in all negotiations related to defense systems.
– The staffing of the general armaments directorate will change with long-term appointments of officers instead of 2-3 years, in order to allow officers time to acquire specialized negotiating experience.
– Strengthening the Internal Affairs Service (IAS) at the Ministry of National Defense to acquire technical know-how and updated methods of checking source-of-wealth statements (pothen esches), accounts, etc. through an MoU with the Greek tax service (AADE).
– Appointing a military prosecutor in IAS and in the defense innovation center (ELKAK) and providing them with the right to lift bank immunity for investigation of individuals handling public funds.
Parliament briefings
– Parliament’s Standing Committee on National Defense and Foreign Affairs will be briefed every six months, which Dendias said would become mandatory as long as he is defense minister. The minister and chiefs of general staffs will brief the committee on developments in all programs. There will also be an initial parliamentary session to briefParliament on all previously approved armaments programs that are still ongoing. “Just so you know, of the 28 billion euros you see, over 11 billion euros have already been allocated. I want you to know where they have been allocated and what has happened to those agreements,” Dendias told deputies.
– The minister said he would also lower the minimum defense amount at which the parliamentary committee delivers an opinion, from the current 30 million euros to 10 million euros. “The Ministry of National Defense will also always be at your disposal for anything you wish, and any amount,” Dendias noted.
Dendias also reminded Parliament that despite “Greece’s obligation to have a long-term armaments program was legislated in 2010,” there has never been such a program tabled in Parliament, and this is the first time it is done. “This is the first government that has tabled a ten-year armaments program which it already tabled in the Greek Parliament a month ago. It is awaiting the convening of the committee so we may discuss it,” the minister added.
Change in dogma
The national defense minister also spoke of a change in mentality in terms of defending Greece. What is for Greece “an existential” issue, he said, “We propose a comprehensive, full approach to defense. To start with, a complete change of dogma. […] We are putting an end to the idea that the Aegean is defended by the fleet. We are moving to an entirely different logic with “Achilles’ Shield”, where the Aegean and the entire territory is being supported against missiles, against airplanes, against drones, against sea vessels and against submarines through a much more complicated system, yet much cheaper in acquiring it, and much more effective in its operation, of multiple missile systems, able to be concealed and dispatched through artificial intelligence, and ‘command and control’.”
This, he said, would free the fleet, especially the new ships in the fleet, to operate as strategic deterrence arms, and the same would be done with airplanes – the Rafales and Mirages that may carry strategic arms.
