Work has already started, and is set to widen, on new fortifications in Thrace and on the islands of the eastern Aegean. According to OnAlert, the program is meant to improve protection for Armed Forces personnel, with the survival of career soldiers and conscripts at the center of the design. The works are underway at several sites and will expand, on the view that recent wars require a different way of organizing defensive positions.
Experience from Ukraine and from the fighting in the Gulf has made one requirement urgent: forces must be able to absorb the first strikes, protect their people, and keep carrying out the mission. Buying modern weapons is not enough unless there is a matching investment in the infrastructure that lets crews use those weapons under sustained pressure.
When drones, artillery, missiles, and air-delivered weapons threaten an area, protection cannot rest only on interception. Positions have to be built for today’s threats, so that a strike does not automatically mean casualties and the loss of the unit.
People on the front line come first
On the Evros and on the islands, fortification is tied directly to operational readiness. The officer, NCO, or conscript who has to stay in a position needs real protection. The ability to remain, rest, and be supported shapes a unit’s endurance as much as the availability of its weapons.
The same sources say the scale of the work will grow, with the aim of raising force survivability. That matters most where a military presence has to be kept at high readiness, and where reinforcing or replacing personnel in a crisis may be difficult.
Protecting conscripts is a core part of the program. Service on the frontier means training and tasks with higher responsibility. The state is expected to match that responsibility with infrastructure that limits exposure. Fortification, in this reading, is practical care for the person who is on a defensive position every day.
Dendias’s visit and the 522 works
The program became public on 3 September 2026, when Defense Minister Nikos Dendias visited the area of the Supreme Military Command of Thrace, with stops in Didymoteicho, Alexandroupoli, and Xanthi.
At the headquarters of the 724th Engineer Battalion he visited one of eight units that produce reinforced-concrete elements. According to the Ministry of National Defense, those elements are used to build 522 new fortification works for the protection of personnel and equipment.
Dendias linked the production of prefabricated, interlocking elements to faster construction. He said the time required falls to 20 percent of the previous figure, and he put completion of the works by 2030. He also said the interventions cover defensive positions, dispersal sites, and infrastructure support.
On the ministry’s assessment, cost is down by about 30 percent, and annual savings on the necessary works are estimated at €41 million.
The visit confirms that the effort has an organized production base inside the Armed Forces. Being able to manufacture the required elements is a condition for keeping the work continuous and for increasing the number of protected positions.
Iran as a lesson in survival
Study of the Gulf fighting also looks at the side under attack. For this subject, the interest is in Iran’s effort to keep capabilities under pressure from opponents with strong air power, advanced intelligence collection, and precision weapons.
The operational question is how a force tries to survive when it cannot rule out being struck. Underground and hardened infrastructure is a large part of that effort. An analysis by the Modern War Institute at West Point links recent operations against Iran to the resilience that extensive underground facilities can provide.
The conclusion for Greek planning needs care. Going underground does not guarantee absolute safety, and the fact that a facility holds up does not mean every function inside it is unaffected. The point is to cut losses and retain enough capacity to act after a strike.
A related case is the experience of armed groups linked to Tehran, such as Hezbollah. Their underground networks are studied as a means of protection and support. The lessons come from looking at both their resilience and their weaknesses, without copying their organization or methods.
Ukraine puts fortification back in the foreground
In Ukraine, the constant presence of unmanned systems has strengthened the need for protected space. The same West Point analysis describes command, support, and medical functions being moved below ground, and protected positions being extended by both sides.
For Greek forces, the analytical extension is clear: fortification should be treated as part of the daily running of every unit. Personnel security covers the whole time they are in their area of responsibility, including preparation, support, and reconstitution.
Duration of pressure is another issue. Planning has to assume that strikes may be repeated. Cohesion, care of the wounded, and the ability to continue basic functions must remain possible even after a position has been damaged.
Modern standards and real endurance
New construction has to meet defined protection requirements matched to the threats it is meant to face. Materials, design, construction, and inspection decide the result. Speed of delivery is useful only when it comes with documented reliability.
Function matters as much as hardness. A protected space has to let personnel stay and carry out the mission safely. Communications, hygiene, support, and maintenance have to be built in from the start.
Foreign battlefields offer direction, but every application has to be adapted to Greek conditions. The Evros and the islands have different geography and different support requirements. Effectiveness will be judged by whether the works serve the real needs of the units.
Fortification as an investment in deterrence
Stronger protective infrastructure adds substance to deterrent power. A force that can safeguard its people and keep functioning after the first blows retains a greater ability to respond. Survival becomes a factor of operational endurance.
That investment is worth more if it is made before a crisis. Construction takes time, inspection, and integration into training. Personnel have to know what the facilities can do, and units have to use them as part of preparation.
The works underway in Thrace and on the islands are aimed at exactly that. Their expansion will be judged by the practical result: more forces with real protection, less exposure for conscripts, and a greater ability to keep the mission going. On a modern battlefield, protecting the person is a precondition for every other military capability.
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