Greece approves €600 million purchase of three C-390 Millennium transport aircraft to replace U.S. C-130s.

On July 23, 2026, Greece’s Council for National Security (KYSEA) approved an estimated €600 million procurement program for three Embraer C-390 Millennium transport aircraft secured through a government-to-government agreement with Portugal. The acquisition allows the Hellenic Air Force to assume existing Portuguese production slots at Embraer's Brazilian assembly facilities, significantly accelerating fleet delivery timelines. This multi-role platform will modernize Greece's strategic airlift capacity by enabling tactical transport, aerial refueling, and aeromedical evacuation capabilities while transferring domestic maintenance responsibilities to the Hellenic Aerospace Industry.

Greece's €600 million acquisition includes three Embraer C-390 Millennium twin-engine jet transports, complete with conversion training, initial spare parts, ground support systems, and a multi-year Follow-on Support contract, with an option for three additional aircraft. Powered by IAE V2500-E5 engines, the C-390 offers a maximum payload capacity of 26,000 kg, a top cruise speed of 870 km/h, and a ferry range extending up to 8,460 km to directly replace aging C-130s in the Hellenic Air Force.

Related topic: Colombian Air Force reportedly eyes Embraer C-390 acquisition from Brazil over C-130 and A400M

With two underwing hose-and-drogue pods, the KC-390 Millennium can refuel fighters equipped with a probe, including the Rafale and Mirage 2000 of the Greek Air Force. (Picture source: Embraer)

On July 23, 2026, Greece’s Council for National Security (KYSEA) approved eleven defence procurement programmes with a combined estimated value of €4.3 billion, including the acquisition of three Embraer C-390 Millennium transport aircraft for about €600 million through a government-to-government agreement with Portugal. The Achilles Shield, which integrates air, missile and counter-UAS assets, represents slightly more than €3 billion, close to 70% of the package, while the C-390 acquisition accounts for close to 14% and is the second-largest individual investment approved at the meeting. It also introduces the first fixed-wing aerial refuelling aircraft within the Hellenic Air Force.

The remaining programmes include Heron MALE UAVs, ten additional V-BAT VTOL drones, ten JFD VICTA diver delivery vehicles, AGM-114 Hellfire missiles for Apache attack helicopters, four M660 Hull Mounted Sonars for the Hellenic Navy’s MEKO 200HN frigates, SAR microsatellites, electronic counter-UAS systems and network-enabled night vision equipment. The C-390 will allow Greece to combine medium strategic airlift, tactical transport, aeromedical evacuation, paratroop operations and fixed-wing aerial refuelling in one aircraft type, while shifting maintenance responsibility toward the Hellenic Aerospace Industry. Interestingly, the three aircraft will not be ordered from a newly created Greek production batch.

Greece plans to obtain three of the ten production positions previously secured by Portugal at Embraer’s assembly facilities in Brazil, allowing the Hellenic Air Force to enter an existing production sequence instead of waiting for an entirely new order to move through Embraer’s backlog. The General Directorate for Defence Investments and Armaments is leading the Greek side of negotiations with the corresponding Portuguese authorities, and the agreement is expected to be signed in autumn 2026, with September as a possible target. The first aircraft is scheduled for delivery in 2027, while completion of the initial three-aircraft fleet is planned by 2030.

The structure also retains an option for three additional aircraft, creating a "3+3" acquisition model under which Greece can establish the capability with an initial fleet and expand to six after evaluating operating costs, availability, training requirements and tanker demand. The €600 million package covers conversion training for pilots, instruction for maintenance personnel, initial spare parts, ground support equipment, mission equipment and a multi-year Follow-on Support contract, making direct comparison with a basic aircraft flyaway price misleading. The C-390 is a twin-engine jet transport powered by two IAE V2500-E5 turbofans, each producing 31,330 lbf of thrust, an engine also used by thousands of Airbus A320 commercial aircraft, providing a substantially larger international engine-support base than would normally exist for a military powerplant.

The aircraft has a maximum take-off weight of 86,999 kg, a maximum payload of 26,000 kg, a maximum cruise speed of Mach 0.80, or 870 km/h, and a service ceiling of 36,000 ft. Its cargo compartment measures 18.5 m long, 3.45 m wide, and 2.95 m high, with a total volume close to 170 m³ when the rear ramp is included. It can carry seven standard 463L military pallets, two M113 tracked armoured personnel carriers, one Boxer or VBTP-MR Guarani wheeled armoured vehicle, one prepared H-60 helicopter, 80 troops, 64 to 66 paratroopers or 74 stretcher patients. Loads of up to 19,000 kg can be delivered by air drop, while the absence of internal landing-gear sponsons reduces intrusion into the cargo hold and preserves usable width for vehicles and palletized cargo.

Performance figures place the C-390 above the C-130J in speed and maximum lift, but below the A400M in the cargo category. The aircraft can carry 26 tonnes for roughly 2,000 km, 23 tonnes for 2,556 to 2,720 km, 14 to 15 tonnes for 5,000 to 5,500 km, and fly close to 6,000 to 6,240 km in a standard ferry configuration. Auxiliary fuel tanks can extend nominal ferry range toward 8,000 to 8,460 km, depending on configuration. These figures mean that the C-390 is optimized for the 10 to 25-tonne load segment rather than for the 30 to 37-tonne cargo carried by an A400M. Moving 100 tonnes of dense cargo at maximum payload would require four C-390 sorties, compared with five C-130J-30 sorties at 20 tonnes or three A400M sorties at 37 tonnes, before considering runway access, loading time, fuel requirements and aircraft availability. 

For Greek operations, this capacity is sufficient for ammunition, engineering machinery, light and medium vehicles, humanitarian cargo and troop equipment, but it will not eliminate dependence on allied or chartered heavy-lift aircraft for tanks, very large helicopters and other loads exceeding the C-390’s floor, dimensional or weight limits. Semi-prepared runway operation broadens access, although actual payload will still fall when runway length, pavement strength, temperature, terrain or surface contamination restrict take-off weight. This is operationally relevant for Greece, as the country must routinely connect Elefsis Air Base with Crete, the eastern Aegean islands, Cyprus and foreign deployment areas while carrying personnel, ammunition, vehicles, engineering equipment, medical teams and supplies.

At a cruise speed of 870 km/h, the C-390 is 210 km/h faster than the C-130J’s 660 to 670 km/h cruise speed and substantially faster than Greece’s older C-130H aircraft, which generally cruise between 540 and 590 km/h. On a 2,000 km sector, the difference between 870 km/h and 660 km/h can reduce airborne time by close to one hour before climb, descent, routing and air-traffic restrictions are added. Against a C-130H flying at 560 km/h, a 2,000 km route requires 3 hours 34 minutes of theoretical cruise time, compared with 2 hours 18 minutes for the C-390, a difference of 1 hour 16 minutes in each direction. A round trip could therefore save more than two hours of airborne time, which creates additional margin for loading, unloading, crew rest or a second mission.

Defence Minister Nikos Dendias linked this speed directly to Cyprus, arguing that the aircraft could support twice the current transport activity, although the final sortie rate will still be constrained by crew availability, maintenance, ground handling and airfield capacity. The C-390's tanker role, under the name KC-390, changes the operational purpose of the acquisition more substantially than the increase in cargo capacity. Greece’s C-390s will be equipped with two wing-mounted hose-and-drogue refuelling pods capable of supporting fighters fitted with refuelling probes, including the Hellenic Air Force’s Rafale and Mirage 2000 jets. Fuel transfer rates reach 1,500 litres per minute from an internal fuel capacity of up to 35,000 kg, although the amount available for transfer depends on route length, altitude, reserves, loiter time and whether auxiliary tanks or mission equipment are installed.

A single tanker sortie can extend fighter patrol duration, increase the radius of maritime strike or air defense missions, and reduce the proportion of fuel consumed while flying from mainland Greece toward Cyprus or the Eastern Mediterranean. This does not give Greece the capacity of an A330 MRTT, which carries more than 100 tonnes of fuel and can support larger receiver formations over longer periods. It instead provides a limited national tanker capability that can be generated from the same fleet used for transport. With three aircraft, Greece will not be able to maintain permanent tanker coverage while simultaneously meeting cargo, training and maintenance commitments, but it will be able to assign a C-390 to selected exercises, high-priority deployments or crisis missions without waiting for allied tanker allocation.

However, in a three-aircraft force, one aircraft in scheduled maintenance and another allocated to crew conversion, training or certification could leave only one available for operational tasking. Tanker training will require separate qualification cycles for C-390 crews and fighter pilots, while cargo air drop, paratroop operations, low-level flight, austere-runway operations and aeromedical evacuation each impose their own training requirements. Exercising the option for three additional aircraft would not merely double nominal payload from 78 tonnes to 156 tonnes. It would create enough depth to keep at least one tanker-capable aircraft available while preserving transport output, training capacity and maintenance rotation.

The future Greek air force structure is expected to divide missions between the C-390 and upgraded C-27J Spartans, with the C-27J handling lighter regional loads and shorter tactical routes while the C-390 assumes heavy cargo, long-distance transport, tanker missions, large troop movements and strategic medical evacuation. This division reduces the risk of using a 26-tonne aircraft for small loads that could be moved more economically by a C-27J, but it also requires centralized tasking to match each mission with the correct aircraft. The C-390 is intended to replace operational output lost from Greece’s C-130B and C-130H fleets rather than reproduce the old fleet aircraft for aircraft.

Greece originally acquired close to twenty Hercules, beginning with C-130H deliveries in 1975, but only four to seven aircraft were operational during 2025-2026. The surviving airframes have accumulated 45 to 50 years of service, structural fatigue inspections, corrosion treatment, longer depot cycles, and an increasing dependence on a declining supply of legacy components. Greece previously examined retired U.S. C-130s, but aircraft requiring extensive restoration were rejected because refurbishment costs exceeded their remaining operational value. Compared with a C-130H payload close to 20 tonnes, the C-390 provides six additional tonnes, a 30% increase, while its cruise speed is 47% to 61% higher than a Hercules.

Its fly-by-wire controls, avionics, onboard diagnostics and modular mission kits also reduce crew workload and shorten role changes, but availability will depend on the sustainment system established in Greece. Subsequently, Dendias said both airframe and engine maintenance will be performed through the Hellenic Aerospace Industry, with at least 25% domestic participation and the objective of avoiding overseas depot periods lasting one year to eighteen months, to avoid reproducing the same readiness problem that forced Greece to replace the Hercules.

Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.

Explore More Defense News

• Land Defense News
• Naval Defense News
• Defense Aerospace News