Hellenic Navy: After the frigates, four new submarines are coming – Construction in Greece included due to SAFE

Recent developments centered connected Gaza underscore the strengthening of Greek naval power successful the Eastern Mediterranean, arsenic the ceasefire statement betwixt Hamas and Israel has marked America’s instrumentality to the Middle East, changing the dynamics for each determination players.

In this context, the Greek Ministry of Defense appears determined to support the momentum of a beardown and chiseled beingness successful the wider portion by continuing to reenforce the Hellenic Navy done the caller armament program, which includes the acquisition of 4 submarines. Athens’ involvement successful purchasing 2 Italian Bergamini-class frigates—with an enactment for 2 more—proved to beryllium a peculiarly demanding task, arsenic respective countries had besides expressed beardown interest. Nevertheless, the Greek Ministry of Defense managed to unafraid the advantage.

At the aforesaid time, strengthening the Hellenic Navy has go a substance of strategical value pursuing the geopolitical developments successful Syria and Gaza, which awesome a “new era” successful the Middle East and the extremity of the 20th-century equilibrium of power.

A home shipbuilding facility

In this direction, the HNGS has already been approached by respective shipbuilders, arsenic attraction present turns from the FDI frigates to the 4 caller submarines—especially since the accomplishment of Kimon, the archetypal Belharra-class frigate, is scheduled for aboriginal January 2026, paving the mode for caller procurements. According to reports, proposals person already been submitted to the Ministry of Defense by consortiums from Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, and 2 South Korean companies for submarine and unmanned systems construction.

The precocious level of involvement is linked to the caller opportunities offered by the European SAFE programme and the emerging model for a communal defence manufacture among EU subordinate states—at a clip of sharply expanding determination challenges.

For Greece, a cardinal extremity is to found a home manufacturing and attraction installation for the submarines successful collaboration with Greek shipyards. The Ministry of Defense has acceptable a people for nationalist information successful the Armed Forces’ procurement programs to scope 25%, focusing connected the integration of caller technologies and the transportation of method know-how.

Moreover, including a clause requiring the constitution of specified a submarine installation connected Greek ungraded would beryllium peculiarly charismatic for overseas bidders, arsenic it would align with the cooperative principles of the EU’s caller defence doctrine—opening the doorway for them to entree European defence funds.

Currently, the Ministry of Defense envisions precise precocious method standards for the caller submarines—reflecting the latest technological capabilities and the fiscal instruments disposable to enactment specified an ambitious program. However, the Hellenic Navy has not yet disclosed details regarding the method specifications of the vessels.

Tenfold power

When the treatment astir acquiring caller submarines began successful mid-summer, Minister of Defense Nikos Dendias noted that the programme would unfold implicit the adjacent decade, i.e., aft 2030, since “submarines are not built quickly.” He added that the caller acquisitions and partnerships successful the armament programme would effect successful “a Navy 10 times stronger than thing Hellenism has ever known.”

It is worthy noting that the Hellenic Navy presently operates 4 Papanikolis-class submarines, 3 Poseidon-class, 1 Glafkos-class, and 1 Okeanos-class, with the oldest of them launched good earlier 1979.