The defense sector of Greek industry is dominated by a few major companies. The Greek Vehicle Industry (Elliniki Viomikhania Okhimaton--ELVO) manufactures a wide range of special-purpose vehicles for civilian and military use. ELVO obtained its technical expertise by license from Austria's Steyr Daimler Puch and the Mercedes Benz corporation of Germany. Among other items, ELVO produces or coproduces Leonidas I, Leonidas II, and Pandur APCs, and a 2.75 ton jeep. At the end of 1994 the firm had made about 400 vehicles for domestic use and export, with current contracts calling for delivery of about 100 more vehicles to the ground forces in 1995 and 1996. At the end of 1994, the Hellenic Army was considering purchase of a new mechanized infantry combat vehicle from Norway's NFT, the DAF Special Products Company of the Netherlands, or the Santa Barbara corporation of Spain. The new model would be built by ELVO under license, under the name Alexandros.

After beginning in 1908 as a producer of commercial explosives for the domestic market, the Powder and Cartridge Company (Piromakhika kai Kalikes--PIRKAL) has a workforce of 1,500 that now produces three types of hand grenades, five types of rifle grenades and smoke hand grenades, flares, and mining boosters. The firm also has manufactured many types of ammunition used in a wide range of military operations. PIRKAL cooperates with leading European and American industries in ammunition manufacture, and since 1985 it has participated in Europe's Stinger missile production program.

Established in 1975, the Greek Aerospace Industry (Elliniki Aeroporiki Viomikhania--EAV) now employs 3,250 workers. It has become one of the region's leading aeronautical companies, supplying more than seventy customers. Among these customers are the Greek armed forces and buyers in more than twenty foreign countries, including the United States, Britain, France, Portugal, and various Arab states. EAV has the capability to maintain, overhaul, modify, and test almost all types of Western aircraft and helicopters, offering particular expertise in Mirage, F-1, and C-130 airplanes and Bell helicopters. EAV services more than twenty types of engines and related accessories and components. It also manufactures and puts together subassemblies for large commercial aircraft such as the Boeing 757 and military aircraft such as the F-16, small and medium-size static subassemblies for military and commercial engines, and aircraft modification and upgrade kits for military and commercial markets. EAV's custom design of electronic and telecommunication products also sells to military and commercial markets. The firm provides training services in all phases of aircraft engine and electronics support, modification, and manufacturing, as well as management and logistics.

The Greek Arms Industry (Elliniki Viotekhnia Oplon--EVO) is a group of companies established in 1977. The industry has five plants with a total workforce of 1,450 employees, making it the largest private defense industrial group in Greece. In 1994 EVO purchased PIRKAL. EVO manufactures a wide variety of small arms, light and heavy machine guns, mortars, nitrocellulose, trinitrotoluene (TNT), aircraft bombs, complete rounds of artillery ammunition, drop fuel tanks, pylons, external stores, antiaircraft defense systems, medium-caliber guns, and components for howitzer retrofitting. In the 1980s, EVO's sale of its sophisticated Artemis-30 antiaircraft system to Libya, as part of a larger economic agreement, caused an international controversy. The group's companies also have produced sophisticated electra-optics (night-vision systems) and communications equipment, precision mechanical equipment for the modernization of tanks and APCs, and metallic components for both military and civilian applications.

The Hellenic Shipyards and the Eleusis Shipyards, which employ 3,150 and 2,350 workers, respectively, were scheduled for privatization in the mid-1990s. The Hellenic Shipyards at Piraeus on the Gulf of Saronikos is the largest shipbuilding, ship-repairing, and rolling-stock operation in the eastern Mediterranean and one of the largest in Europe. In the thirty-five years of the firm's operation, its two dry docks and three floating docks have accommodated repairs for over 8,200 vessels of all types and sizes. Its two slipways have seen the construction of 110 commercial vessels and warships, including frigates, fast-patrol missile boats, replenishment tankers, and fast-attack boats, up to 40,000 deadweight tons. At the end of 1994, the Hellenic Shipyards were completing the first Greek-built MEKO-200H (Hydra-class) frigate. Two additional frigates were in earlier stages of construction for the Hellenic Navy, and Hellenic Shipyards had designed three offshore-patrol vessels for delivery to a foreign customer in 1996. The yards also build railroad freight and passenger cars and electrically powered trains.

Greece's second major shipbuilding firm, the Eleusis Shipyards (also located on the Gulf of Saronikos near Athens), has a wide range of activities, including shipbuilding, ship repairs and conversions, and industrial construction. In late 1994, the major military contract at Eleusis was for five large LST landing craft for the Hellenic Navy.

Data as of December 1994

NOTE: The information regarding Greece on this page is re-published from The Library of Congress Country Studies and the CIA World Factbook. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Greece Defense Enterprises information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Greece Defense Enterprises should be addressed to the Library of Congress and the CIA.