On Tuesday, 25 September 2018, the Alternate Minister of National Defence Panagiotis Rigas, accompanied by the Chief on the Hellenic Navy General Staff Vice Admiral Nikolaos Tsounis and the Fleet Commander in Chief Vice Admiral Ioannis Pavlopoulos, observed, on board SPETSAI Frigate, activities of scheduled operational training of the Navy, in the context of ASTRAPI 5/18 technical exercise.
The Alternate Minister of National Defence was briefed on the exercise’s progress and then he observed an exercise of a counter air threat maneuver and surface fires.
He addressed the captain and the crew of the ship and congratulated them on the flawless execution of the exercise and expressed his enthusiasm regarding the ship’s capabilities, and the Navy’s state of readiness and efficiency in general. He made a special reference to the personnel, who, under the difficult circumstances, resulting from the financial crisis, kept the ships both battle worthy and in a high state of readiness. At the same time, he assured that the maintenance and armaments programs will be continued –aiming to protect the society and out of respect to the Greek taxpayers – as well as that until the end of the year, the Armed Forces members will get the money owed to them. He also pointed out that the political leadership of the Ministry of National Defence really appreciates the role of the Armed Forces regarding the country’s security reinforcement, acknowledging that especially in this particular time period, no one dared to threat our country’s fair principles, because everybody knows that we possess a battle worthy force that will protect our land.
