Today, Greece is actively developing its defence industry, with plans to invest more than €25 billion in defence by the end of 2036. The Greek Ministry of National Defence also plans to expand its fleet of combat aircraft to 200 units by 2030. The state is seeking to play a more active role in international politics by strengthening cooperation with the United States, France, Israel and other NATO countries. One such step is the launch of DEFEA, which takes place every two years in Athens.
Despite its short history – the first DEFEA exhibition took place in 2021 – its reputation in the international defence industry is growing.
This time, the event took place from 6 to 8 May and became the largest defence event in the Eastern Mediterranean region. DEFEA is held under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of National Defence and this year attracted more than 400 participating companies from 32 countries. In addition to local manufacturers, the largest defence manufacturers from the United States, France, Italy, Israel, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Poland, South Korea and others were also present.
A wide range of defence technologies were presented at DEFEA 2025: land, sea and air systems, including armoured vehicles, ships and aircraft. Many different unmanned developments were also presented.
Today, the Greek defence industry is characterised by a variety of international cooperation projects.
During the three days of the exhibition, representatives of AKM Group-CZ had the opportunity to get to know local manufacturers better. Given that Greece is now open to cooperation, technology transfer and the launch of joint production, interesting projects and possible cooperation were discussed. The signing of exclusive contracts is expected.
‘Our team came away with very positive impressions of DEFEA 2025. Despite its compact scale, the exhibition proved to be rich and productive for our company. As professionals in the defence sector, we can truly say that this time we saw that Greece is very active in improving its defence capabilities, especially in the field of weapons modernisation,’ commented a representative of AKM Group-CZ.
