Defense Min Dendias at career event: Everything changing under 'Agenda 2030'

Everything in the Armed Forces is changing: the 21st-century soldier is one who must be able, first of all, to handle drones and anti-drones, Greek National Defense Minister Nikos Dendias said on Tuesday.
Dendias made his statements at the in.gr conference Brian Regain Retain, during a chat with journalists Alexandra Fotaki, Dimitris Maniatis, and Anastasia Giamali on "The renaissance of the defense industry, innovation, new high-level positions and the new era's Armed Forces".
Speaking of the changes and referring to his own army service, Dendias said, "It is no longer the old logic of marching for 40 kilometers as I did at the School of Infantry Reserve Officers, carrying 25 kilos on my back with a Tommy Gun in hand and a helmet that weighed 2.5 kilos. It is not what we have today." He said that implementing the military's upgrade through 'Agenda 2030' will offer other capabilities than those of the past.
Armed Forces career
Asked why a young man would want to choose the Armed Forces as a career, the minister said, inter alia, "I believe that he will have a bright career ahead. And I mean, a job in the most technologically advanced environment, or in one of the most advanced that one may find in Greece, or even the world, today."
As an example, he cited state-of-the-art machinery, extremely advanced concepts, a love of one's homeland and a desire to serve it. In addition, the defense ministry is improving the facilities of the military academies and plans to develop them as "advanced university environments".
"Besides that, however, this career has changed as well. In the past, the Army gave the impression of being a place of hardship and self-sacrifice, as each saw it, with the exception of pilots. Now it is being transformed into an advanced environment of handling systems, especially the most advanced systems in the planet - whether in the Air Force, the Navy, or, once less likely so, the Army. As a result, I believe it is a career that can fill a human life," Dendias said.
The minister also spoke in detail about interventions to improve the daily lives of officers such as facilitating housing, offering special needs services for children with autism, setting up retirement homes for retired military officers, and ways to raise military salaries.