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 Commander of a Mine Sweeper at the rank of Lieutenant-Commander (2005-2006) and Commander of an Auxiliary Support Ship as a Commander (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 Chief of Staff of the Hellenic Helicopter Command (2011 – 2012), Shift Director of the Hellenic Joint Operational Centre (2013 – 2016), Commander of the Hellenic Navy Helicopter Command (2016 – 2017) and Chief of Staff of the Naval Aegean Command (2018 – 2019).
From 2008 until 2011, he was appointed as an Info Ops/STRATCOM Subject Matter Expert at NATO's Joint Force Command Naples and he was involved in two NATO Operations (NATO's Anti-Piracy Operations "Ocean Shield" and NATO's 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 Commander of Aegean Naval Command (2019 – 2020) and Naval Aviation Command (2020 – 2022). Ilias Raptis was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral on January 27th, 2025.
In July 2022, he became Commander Maritime Air NATO at NATO's Maritime Command in Northwood. Ilias was promoted to Rear Admiral in January 2025.