Greece's location in the Mediterranean Sea and its long maritime tradition have led to emphasis on the role of the Hellenic Navy. The chief of the Hellenic Navy General Staff also is Commander Eastern Mediterranean (COMEDEAST) in the NATO command structure. Among the navy's missions is control of vital choke points in the Aegean and Ionian seas to ensure safe passage of NATO and domestic naval forces.

In the early 1990s, the navy was increasingly active in NATO exercises and in the STANAVFORMED, which was formed in 1992. Base facilities are provided to NATO ships at Souda Bay in Crete and at Salamis, near Athens.

The navy is divided into three commands: the Fleet, the Naval Training Command, and the Naval Logistics Command. The most important operational part of the navy is the fleet. Greece's geographic position places special demands on the fleet because its possible area of operations ranges from the coastal areas and shallow waters of the Aegean to open waters in the Ionian Sea and the eastern Mediterranean Basin. All those areas are within range of land-based aircraft.

The demands of national security and NATO participation have inspired an expensive modernization program in the Hellenic Navy. Given fiscal restrictions, planners have concentrated on acquisition of modern naval platforms to replace outmoded Fletcher class and Gearing FRAM I/II class destroyers. The goals of the replacement program include manufacture of four MEKO-200H class frigates--the first of which was delivered from Germany in 1993, the other three of which are scheduled for later completion in the Hellenic Shipyards (see The Greek Defense Industry , this ch.).

Four Adams-class destroyers were leased from the United States Navy in 1992 and placed in the Greek Kimon class. The next year, three Knox-class frigates also were leased from the United States Navy and placed in the Makedonia class, and three Standard (Dutch Kortenaer) class frigates were acquired from the Dutch Navy for use in the Greek Elli class. In all, the Hellenic Navy had fourteen major surface combatants in 1994. In 1993 Greek shipyards began construction of five tank landing ships (LSTs). The modernization program also includes acquisition of five Sikorsky antisubmarine warfare (ASW) helicopters from the United States to support the fleet's antisubmarine defenses. Four of Greece's eight Glavkos-type (GeT-209/1100) submarines have updated power plants and upgraded electronic equipment; Harpoon surface-to-surface missiles have been added to one. One of the submarines was modernized in Germany, the others at the Salamis Shipyard near Piraeus. The navy's command, control, and communications information systems are also in the process of modernization to improve information flow. A number of small combatants and support ships also have been built in the early 1990s.

Plans for the immediate future called for acquisition of eight P3 maritime patrol aircraft to replace the nine outmoded Albatross aircraft currently in use. The addition of new units also requires upgrading the naval facilities at Greece's two main bases, Salamis and Souda Bay, as well as the forward bases on the island of Skiros and on the Khalkidiki Peninsula, both in the Aegean Sea.

The Hellenic Navy includes 19,500 active-duty personnel, of whom 7,900 are conscripts and 2,700 are officers; 2,600 of the number are women. Greece is divided into three naval districts, covering the Ionian Sea, the Aegean Sea, and northern Greece. Besides fleet headquarters, which is the combat command component, the organization includes the Naval Logistics Command and the Naval Training Command. Other naval bases are located at Kavala and Patras in the Peloponnesus and at Thessaloniki. The navy's total equipment strength includes a wide range of vessels (see table 16, Appendix).

The Coast Guard is a paramilitary branch of the navy that comes under the purview of the Ministry of Merchant Marine in peacetime. The force has 158 patrol craft of various types and four light aircraft. The Coast Guard patrols all Greek harbors, coastlines, and territorial waters, monitoring antipollution measures and controlling merchant shipping. Officers train at the Navy Cadet Academy.

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 The Hellenic Navy information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Greece The Hellenic Navy should be addressed to the Library of Congress and the CIA.