Three new Special Operations Units are being established in Attica, Central Macedonia and northern Evros under ministerial decisions signed by Greece‘s Defence Minister Nikos Dendias, as part of the new force structure introduced through the Armed Forces’ “Agenda 2030” reform, the Defence Ministry said.
Two of the three units will be made up entirely of reservists. According to the ministry, their creation addresses a longstanding weakness in the country’s defence system, under which reservists from the Special Forces—despite being trained in some of the military’s most demanding combat skills—were largely left with a “clean discharge” and placed on standby for possible future deployment.
Such a system served neither the reservists nor the country, the ministry said, stressing that the reserve force is a key pillar of operational readiness.
Under the new approach, every Special Forces reservist will be called up as a priority and will know in advance which unit they will join, its mission and the duties they will be expected to perform.
The ministry also noted that, as part of its new strategy for the reserve force, retraining centres have already been established in Avlona, Attica, and Litochoro, Pieria.
“The reservist is the link between the Armed Forces and Greek society,” Dendias has said. “He embodies the enduring ideal of the Citizen Army, which for more than 2,500 years has been the Greek approach to defending our homeland,” the ministry’s statement said.
