Military Open Science: Leadership with a purpose!

We are living in a time when humanity is stretched by planet-scale challenges — climate change, loss of biodiversity, environmental degradation — and we must reimagine the mission of our institutions. We must ask: can defence do more than deter? Can it defend more than borders?

The answer, I believe, is yes. And the path ahead is Military Open Science.

This idea did not emerge from theory alone, but from practice — and from dialogue. Through deep, contemplative discussions back in 2018 with my close friend Kimon Papadimitriou , we were talking about the values of Open Science and Civil Science. We asked ourselves what lies in between. And we realized: the Armed Forces, when properly guided, can offer systematic, transparent, and invaluable support to scientific knowledge. And thus, the term Military Open Science was born.

It is not a metaphor. It is a framework.

What Military Open Science is — and why it matters

Military Open Science recognizes that the Armed Forces, through their reach, discipline, and technical capability, are well situated to support scientific research — especially environmental and climate science. This contribution is not hypothetical; it is already happening.

In the US, the Navy's SCICEX program (Scientific Ice Expeditions) deployed nuclear submarines under Arctic ice to collect data on water temperature, salinity, sea ice thickness, marine mammal presence, and seafloor topography. These were military platforms, but they supported scientific missions that could not have been conducted by civilian research vessels in such distant and extreme conditions.

In Greece, our submarines began recording underwater soundscapes — not just for tactical situational awareness, but also for passive acoustic cetacean monitoring, including sperm whales and dolphins. These military sensors gathered data in areas, depths, and time scales that traditional scientific platforms cannot routinely acquire.

Let us be frank: there exists no civilian institution with equipment as advanced, mobile, or long-lasting as a navy submarine. Marine biologists are relegated to periodic boat-based surveys, temporary hydrophones, or satellite tagging with limited application. The Military, on the other hand, have at their disposal the means for constant and secretive surveillance — a quiet cooperation with nature, if we choose to put it that way.

From Observation to Intention: The Power of Protocol

But Military Open Science is not only about equipment. It is about how we do things.

If military personel are picking up trash along coastlines — a symbolic and welcome act — their work is peripheral unless it is scientifically planned. But if they use internationally adopted protocols (e.g., waste types and amounts, GPS location, weather, and ecosystem vulnerability), then that same work is one data point in a global marine pollution database. If they collect samples, note patterns, and report observations using open access portals, they are citizen-scientists in uniform — trained, disciplined, and reliable. That is impact.

The shift is from symbolic involvement to measurable contribution.

The Ethical Dimension of Strength

This is not a summons to changing the mission of the military. This is a summons to expanding its mandate. We cannot pretend to defend our nations while ignoring the despoliation of their environments. We cannot speak of security if we are not troubled by the climate-driven destabilisation of our shores, waters, and citizens.

Military Open Science instructs us that strength is not in brute force, but in observant discipline, in listening to the environment, in rendering capability into service.

Let us make this the age in which power listens.

Let defence not only defend, but understand.

Let silence — the kind we have in the deep — be significant.

Let the uniform not only threaten, but bear witness.