The Minister of National Defence Mr. Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos, responded today, Friday 17 August 2021, on a topic question posed by the MP of B Western Sector of Attica Mr Giorgos Tsipras, under the title “Extremely delayed engagement of the plenty fire fighting air and ground assets, as well as of the Armed Forces personnel regarding putting raging fires out”.
First, the Minister of National Defence pointed out the following:
“Dear colleague,
In the question you posed regarding the “extremely delayed participation of the air assets and the Armed Forces personnel in putting the fires out”, the first comment I want to make is that the information you provide are extremely inaccurate. The time is also particularly insufficient to give a complete answer for what really happened, regarding the number of the Armed Forces engaged assets, the exact time, if their participation was on time or delayed, and in any case, to clarify the Armed Forces total participation in this.
This estimation is flagrantly unfair to the Armed Forces and the thousands of personnel engaged in the fight against devastating fires which hit the country, from the end of July until mid August. The result is undisputable. The disaster is huge. Of course it could be bigger, but nevertheless it is huge. You are playing with emotions at this moment, given the fact that if you tell a fire-stricken person that the forces were mobilized in time, they will not be convinced. No one will convince them. From then on though, it is wise to have temperance when we present information..
I trust that already in the discussion which took place on Wednesday 25 August in the Parliament, at a level of Political Leaders, the Prime Minister took a stand on the issue, by saying that: “The Armed Forces immediately provided all forces in terms of personnel, assets and materials, exactly according to the numbers and in the areas requested by the Secretariat General of Civil Protection”. So, in a few words, the Armed Forces engagement regarding providing fire fighting air assets, personnel, surveillance means, etc: Whenever and whatever the Secretariat General of Civil Protection asked of us, it was provided.
Already from the start of the fire fighting period, that is the 1 May 2021, a mandate was given by HNDGS for forest protection patrols and fire protection posts manning throughout the Country. Everyday there were surveillance and fire extinguishing flights and also Engineering machinery, vehicles and materials were provided, accompanied by the appropriate technical and supportive personnel, whenever and wherever requested, depending on the Secretariat General of Civil Protection needs.
In addition, from Monday 2 August 2021, due to the high risk indicator anticipated for the following days, upon HNDGS Mandates, the total of Personnel and Assets was activated, specified in the relative plans regarding contributing to the fight against forest fires. I remind you that in the previous days fires broke out in the islands (in Rhodes and Kos, if I am not mistaken), two of them being very close to Military Units. On 5 August, a meeting was held for the further contribution of the Armed Forces-and not contribution from that moment on-at the Maximos Mansion, under the Prime Minister, and of course relative announcements were made by me and HNDGS/Chief.
But already from Monday 2 August 2021 Orders have been issued, activating “Defkalion” forces, as well as increasing the alert state of these forces. There was an order to put 50 people on alert in each Camp in Attica and Voiotia regions (since fires had already started there) and increasing surveillance with mounted patrols 24/7, in order to locate and timely extinguish any fire spots close to Camps. As I said, the two fires which had broken out in Rhodes and Kos were close to camps, in a 10 kilometers range.
On Tuesday 3 August , Armed Forces ground troops, along with “Defkalion” groups and Engineering machinery were engaged in the fires front in Tatoi region, and this is the reason the fire did not expand inside the Dekelia Air Base. The fire burned some trees around the fence, as well as an old storage building-not operational-in the Base and it stopped there.
From Tuesday 3 to Friday 13 August, the Armed Forces contributed the Secretariat General of Civil Protection with Personnel and Assets per region, in numbers that I will testify, in Evoia, Attica, Peloponnese and the rest of the Country, with some thousands of Army Officers and Soldiers, of course the total available air assets (and I will speak about that), as well as vehicles, even floating assets for any contingency, contribution to Evoia population evacuation, where fires were raging. The numbers and assets used were without precedent.
Regarding air assets, the maximum availability was thirty three aircraft, besides the rest flying assets used in surveillance missions and coverage of Logistics needs (Unmanned vehicles and helicopters for surveillance, etc). We are only talking about air fire fighting assets, that is “Canadair” aircraft old CL-215 and new CL-415, “Chinook” helicopters CH-47D. These are the means that the Armed Forces possess regarding air fire fighting, but the rest are the “Erickson” and the Russian “Beriev” of the Secretariat General of Civil Protection.
Regarding the “Canadair”, in the Hellenic Aerospace Industry three are kept for maintenance, two CL-215 and one CL-415. Those available during July and August were six and eight respectively, six Cl-215 and eight Cl-415. The numbers are not worse than any other period; on the contrary, I would say that they are better than other periods. We can’t have it all; we can never have it all. Are some of them always on the Hellenic Aerospace Industry for maintenance? They are. I will not start a discussion now for the Hellenic Aerospace Industry; of course it could be a subject of another Parliamentary Control question, nor for the F-16 case. There are for and against arguments
on this, but we will not discuss it now.
In any case though, the “Canadair” maintenance was at a satisfactory level and they really operated. Although somebody may have alleged that even if the Air Force provided a hundred “Canadairs” for fire extinguishing, having as an average 120-130 fires raging or evolving those days, it is questionable if they would be enough!
The “Chinooks” were also discussed. During operational planning, three “Chinook” are provided for fire fighting, regarding the tubs and the rest. During the current operational planning we provide more. Some are available, some are not. But it is interesting and it may have become a subject of a special question in the context of Parliamentary Control, to see what the real condition of “Chinooks” is. We had some available, less than the number of the total of “Chinooks”, but you know when we were buying the extra ones, we were not buying the repair services as well.
The repair capabilities after 2017, with more “Chinooks”, remained the same as before. Also, when we were buying new “Chinooks”, we were not buying-as the previous Government used to do-Follow-On Support Contracts as well. The “Chinook” Follow-On Support Contract allowing for the continuous flow in spare parts, and maintenance for that matter, was awarded in the beginning or mid 2020.
As long as “Chinooks” are assigned various missions, mostly air evacuations- which you know what a burden that was for Army Aviation transport means, due to the air evacuations in cooperation with the National Emergency Aid Center- of patients from remote regions of the country, especially during the “Covid-19” period, and everyday a lot of medical emergencies were arising, the flight hours were decreasing. It is a standard request of the Army Aviation Command that this burden is alleviated-not to abandon this social care, but to be alleviated- with reinforcements from elsewhere, like the National Emergency Aid Center helicopters, which, at some point, will be put under an alert flying state, but at this moment, the personnel still undergoes training. It would be a big case to alleviate the “Chinook” burden, so that they have available flying hours, a situation which would potentially be extremely useful during a crisis. But in any case, the number indicated in operational planning has been anticipated.
Regarding the 18 PZL, you know that these are not incorporated for factory maintenance in the Hellenic Aerospace Industry. In any case, all or almost all were available and executed fire fighting missions.
I believe that regarding the above, I have not spoken at all of the ground personnel available, regarding surveillance, the burned areas, the mountainous forest areas, to potentially deter some “cunning” people. We did not only have fires due to extreme heat; we also had fires caused by arson and this was proven with evidence; besides, some arsonists were arrested. I can speculate that the patrols, especially in mountainous forest areas and the islands, brought about a deterrent result.
In any case, I think it would be unfair for someone to believe that the Armed Forces engagement was extremely delayed. No! Before the meeting that defined their further engagement on 5 August, the Armed Forces had already been engaged and produced work, not only regarding forest fire fighting, but mostly patrols. This continued in the next days with the engagement of thousands of Armed Forces Members, in a mobilization that, I can say, the engagement number of the Members was greater than ever.
The outcome is standard, but I think the thinking that the Armed Forces got engaged extremely late is really unfair to this huge number of Members who were mobilized and did everything, trying to contribute to society and help the fire fighting mission”.
Second, Mr. Panagiotopoulos pointed out:
“Dear colleague,
I would rather asked a question on the “Chinooks”, to see the numbers, the availabilities and the repair services and make comparisons, not with the 1970s but with the year 2017, when the extra “Chinooks” were bought amounting to twenty from the previous sixteen, but without making a provision, regarding increasing repair services or even signing a Follow-On Support Contract which is necessary as systems become obsolete, just simply for the continuous flow of spare parts.
When extra systems are bought, but there is no provision for spare parts, they will be used, they will exceed their usage limit (even in air evacuations, in a period of an extreme medical crisis or with regard to the situation in Greece, that is everyday needs for air evacuations from remote island areas), and at a specific time, the remaining hours will be just a few, before taken once more for maintenance. How can you maintain a system without spare parts, without follow-on support and how will you make it available to the Armed Forces, whenever needed or requested? This discussion is interesting but I cannot cover the issues in these two minutes of address.
I will just present the Note issued by the Ministry of National Defence, with information released by the HNDGS, regarding the total contribution of the Armed Forces from 2 to 12 August. You will realize that the total flying hours by air assets exceed 1,200 hours.
These are numbers that we could see in a war confrontation, so many sorties, and so many flying hours. This was, kind of, the phenomenon we had to face under war confrontation terms, and indeed, on the 5th of August meeting-after which some measures were announced by me regarding the general context and the HNDGS/Chief regarding the special context-the further engagement of the Armed Forces was determined. But the engagement of the Armed Forces is determined and ordered when requested, when the Secretariat General-now the Ministry-of Civil Protection says what they need.
As a preventive measure, we have already activated patrol teams around the Camps, we have made available the first groups of “Defkalion” project, we have increased the levels of alert and the participation, we have called extra people in Attica and Voiotia Camps, in order to respond in case an emergency arises as it did.
The engagement of the Armed Forces is really huge. It took place according to the needs, as they were communicated, as requirements and requests were submitted by the Secretariat General of Civil Protection. Regarding the air assets, those days, the availabilities were equal or greater than other respective periods, despite the fact that the requirements were much greater.
As I said, only three “Canadair” aircraft did not engage due to their maintenance in the Hellenic Aerospace Industry, because occasional needs arise or factory maintenance as well, which is divided in many stages, like first level, second level, third level and total, during which the whole aircraft is dismantled, because a total inspection of all systems must be performed. On April 2020 the time came for the factory maintenance of an old CL-215.
That said, they were used and still are, during the fire fighting period. Since you asked me how I sleep, right now we have two extra “Chinooks” available, that is they were delivered during this period. Of course, we examine capabilities to increase the repair service, but also to assign a project possibly outside the potential of Army Aviation as well (which is responsible for “Chinook” maintenance), in order to have even more availabilities in satisfactory timetables. This is one of the thoughts. Besides, we will discuss the matter in the competent Committees of which you are a member.
Generally we should not be unfair to the Armed Forces. They were engaged to the maximum in this very hard effort. Judging by the outcome, given there was a huge disaster, it is expected to hear complaints, to sense the anger, the failure, especially regarding fire-stricken. The truth is that a super effort was made, which prevented the worst, even at the patrol level, regarding the places where fires did not break out or the places where fires broke out and rekindling took place, until their final extinguishing.
We must not be unfair to the thousands of Members engaged. Of course we must rethink and redefine many things with regard to the whole model, at a requested level. From then on, the effort was huge. Thousands of people and assets were engaged and gave their best to limit the big damage.
Thank you”.
