Greece weighs additional F-35 jets

Greece is weighing the acquisition of further F-35 combatant jets aft 2030 alternatively of upgrading its fleet of 38 F-16 Block 50 aircraft, officials said Thursday, arsenic negotiations with the US implicit the long-delayed modernization program continue.

Athens is considering ordering 8 to 12 much F-35 jets, connected top of the 20 already under accumulation for the Hellenic Air Force, with the archetypal expected for transportation successful 2028. Talks connected the imaginable enlargement of the F-35 fleet arose amid slow-moving discussions connected the F-16 Block 50 upgrade, which person been under way for astir 5 years.

Greek defence planners are acrophobic that completing the Block 50 modernization astir 2031 oregon 2032 would effect successful different variant of an outdated F-16 platform. This hazard is prompting a displacement toward investing successful much F-35 aircraft, which would connection precocious capabilities and a projected operational beingness of astatine slightest 50 years.

By the extremity of the decade, Greece expects to tract 83 F-16 Viper jets, 40 of which person already been delivered, alongside its existing Rafale fighters. These Vipers would stay afloat interoperable with the F-35 fleet, reducing the request for further modernization work.

After protracted negotiations, US officials reportedly agreed that the F-16 Block 50 upgrade could beryllium completed for astir €900 million, little than fractional of the €1.9 cardinal primitively discussed. Greece accepted Lockheed Martin’s information that the work beryllium carried retired astatine Hellenic Aerospace Industry facilities alternatively than the 111 Combat Wing basal successful Nea Anchialos.

While Greece is apt to run 30 to 32 F-35 jets by the mid-2030s, different US-built systems stay under review.

Athens is besides prioritizing replacing its aging transport aircraft. Despite improvements to its fleet of American-made C-130H planes, they stay hard to maintain. Greece is weighing the C-130J but progressively favors the Brazilian-made Embraer C-390, already selected by respective European Union countries, including Portugal, Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Sweden.

Talks with Lisbon connected a imaginable C-390 acquisition are under way. Portugal operates its ain C-390 fleet, and a bilateral statement would beryllium easier to finalize within a European framework, officials said.