Ilias Raptis joined the Hellenic Navy in 1984. From 1988 until 1997, he served as Staff Officer on Frigates, Destroyers and Amphibious ships. He was assigned CO of a Mine Sweeper at the rank of LCDR (2005-2006) and CO of an Auxiliary Support Ship as a CDR (2012 - 2013).
His expertise is Naval Aviation as a naval helicopter pilot. He received his initial training in 1993, became flight instructor and flew over 2500 hours mainly in AB212 in the ASW role. He commanded 1st Squadron of Hellenic Navy Helicopters (2007 – 2008).
He was appointed as COS of the Hellenic Helicopter Command (2011 – 2012), Shift Director of the Hellenic Joint Operational Centre (2013 – 2016), CO of the Hellenic Navy Helicopter Command (2016 – 2017) and COS of the Naval Aegean Command (2018 – 2019).
From 2008 until 2011, he was appointed as an Info Ops/Stratcom SME at JFC Naples and he was involved in two NATO Operations (Anti-Piracy Ops and Operation "Unified Protector".
He got a Master of Science in Business Administration focusing on National Security Affairs from Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, USA (2003 – 2004).
He attended the Joint War College from 2006 through 2007, focusing on joint and combined military operations and the National Defence College from 2015 through 2016 focusing on national security decision-making, strategy and policy.
In 2019, he was promoted to Commodore and assigned as CO of Aegean Naval Command (2019 – 2020) and Naval Aviation Command (2020 – 2022).
In July 2022, he became Commander Maritime Air NATO at NATO's Maritime Command in Northwood.