Modern Greek military ranks are based on Ancient Greek & Byzantine terminology, even though the ranks correspond to those of other Western armies. For example, ancient hoplite unit of approximately 100 men, the lochos, is today the name for a company of soldiers; its commander, as in ancient times, is a lochagos, while his lieutenants are called ypolochagoi — literally, "sub-captains" — a modern neologism. A sergeant is known as a lochias. A tagmatarchis (major) commands a tagma (battalion) and so forth. Thus, every officer or non-commissioned officer is in the land and air forces is generally named after the type of unit he commands, with the suffix -agos (from agein, "to lead") or -archos / arches (from archein, "to rule").
The Hellenic Air Force, is the youngest of the three services (founded in 1930). Its rank structure and insignia are based on the British Royal Air Force.