🇬🇷🇪🇺 Greece maintains one of Europe’s most substantial and heavily equipped militaries on a per capita basis and consistently spends heavily on defence-typically over 3% of GDP, well above the NATO target of 2% and higher than most European allies.
This enables Greece to serve as a key security provider in the Eastern Mediterranean, protecting Western interests, strengthening NATO’s southeastern flank, safeguarding freedom of navigation, and contributing to regional stability.
It has one of Europe’s largest tank fleets (1,385 MBTs, including 350+ modern Leopard 2 variants), thousands of armoured vehicles, strong artillery, and a total military personnel of 419,050.
The Hellenic Air Force has among the EU’s largest and most advanced fighter fleets (230 combat aircraft) with more fighter jets than Germany, UK, Italy or Spain.
The Hellenic Navy is among the EU’s most capable maritime forces, often ranked around sixth in Europe, with a substantial frigate fleet and about 186 naval assets. The navy is undergoing rapid modernization with French FDI HN (Belharra/Kimon-class) frigates-HS Nearchos and HS Formion expected by 2026 and a fourth vessel, Themistokles, projected around 2028-alongside plans for additional frigates, new submarines, patrol vessels, and upgrades to the existing fleet.
Ongoing Modernization (2025–2036): Key elements include the acquisition of 20 + 20 F‑35 Lightning II stealth fighters and the development of an advanced multi-layered air-defense network combining existing Patriot PAC‑3 batteries with newly planned Israeli systems such as SPYDER air defense system (short-range), Barak MX (medium-range), and SkyCeptor missile (long-range).