Deputy Minister of Defense Giannis Kefalogiannis mentioned the schedule of changes to military service.
According to what Yannis Kefalogiannis said, the main goal is to turn military service from a chore into an opportunity, and for our young people to have some skills when they leave the army.
Yiannis Kefalogiannis initially stated that the time limit of the Greek service is not going to change and commenting on the changes brought by the Finnish model, he emphasized that the main idea is “to transform, as Nikos Dendias has said, military service from a chore into an opportunity , and that our young man, leaving the army, can have some skills, which will be useful to him in his professional life as well”.
“The reason we take some cues from the Finnish model is that Finland is very similar to the Greek model in various issues. In other words, it has a mixed army, i.e. professionals and reservists, border guards, while from the east lies the threat called Russia. Over time, if you look at the history of the two countries, you will see that a very small nation in terms of population like Finland, faced at various stages of its history a very big threat that used to be the Russian Empire, later the Soviet Union, now Russia “, said Mr. Kefalogiannis.
Referring to the visit of Nikos Dendias to Finland last week, the Deputy Minister of National Defense said that what was found is that the Finns, who acquire through this process specific skills, but above all are in a military readiness such that it really allows them as citizens to be turned into soldiers in a very short period of time, within about eight weeks.
The “key” role of Lifelong Learning Centers
“We have, first of all, both in the Army, in the Air Force, and in our Navy, excellent Centers for Lifelong Learning, which at the moment train mainly the permanent officers and some very few draftees.
So we want to develop them, to certify them according to the national certification authorities, so that when the citizen, the soldier, gets a certification that will be useful either in the private or in the public sector, that is, even for a proclamation, he said Yiannis Kefalogiannis, indicatively mentioning the lifeguard’s specialty.
We intend to include critical specialties, such as civil protection and first aid, added the Deputy Minister of National Defense, referring to the category of those who have studied, to the category of young people who are now given the opportunity to get a supply in the army. “We have identified a number of categories that if actually integrated our young person will be able to obtain a certificate,” he said.
The establishment of the Department of Information Technology in the Armed Forces
“The staffs are currently processing a series of data on exactly what army we need and the bill that we presented to the cabinet regarding the Innovation Center is part of this framework. Because what the country really needs right now is not to spend billions from the Greek taxpayer’s arrears on weapon systems, although useful, but perhaps many times we have to see that there are also some more intelligent systems, less expensive, which they can have a very large footprint in a conflict”, said Ioannis Kefalogiannis, clarifying:
“The basic philosophy in chapter 1 of the bill regarding the Information Technology Department, which is currently being established in the Armed Forces, is that now the modern officer is at the same time a scientist and also if one has to deal with modern weapons systems he has to know in depth the object. Cyber security and artificial intelligence are part of every modern army and the most important thing is that at the moment we do have some specialized officers, who have mainly studied IT at a postgraduate level, but there is not a unified body.
“This department will be integrated in Thessaloniki, at the School of Officer Corps of our Army, where in this way, as for example the doctors leave, as the lawyers leave, those who will deal with the IT issue will also leave. It will be under GEETHA and I believe that in this way it will be more functional and the procedures will be faster in terms of the issue of dealing with any risks”, added Mr. Kefalogiannis.
“The first bakery in the IT common body”
Next, he added: “So the first batch that will go in, maybe, is this or next September. The goal is to be him. You understand that it takes four years for the first graduates to come out of the common body. This does not mean that in these four years we will sit and wait for developments.
Obviously, we will try to implement procedures as dense as possible in relation to the retraining of the already existing officers on issues of IT, cyber security, artificial intelligence. In order to develop all these infrastructures, which are necessary, but at the moment there is a very important work being done within the GEETHA and the Staffs, so that we can integrate the new structures under the GEETHA. This will take much less time.”
The bill for the Innovation Center is under consultation
“There is funding, with 25 million which will be the initial capital, so that through this Innovation Center we can finance companies that want to develop the corresponding weapon systems, which then the Ministry of National Defense will also have the rights to them . We are taking too many features of the Israeli model, a very large ecosystem around the defense industry and especially cutting-edge technology, Kefalogiannis said and underlined that “it is difficult to catch those who will enlist in 2024 but that was the goal of the last ESSO” finally confirming that in the Finnish model women’s conscription is on the table as voluntary.
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