Greece has now realized its long known intention and is procuring F-35 jets. Athens’ official interest in the Lockheed Martin produced fighter jet goes back to at least the end of 2020. At that time, the government first formally requested information from the Pentagon about the purchase of 18 to 24 jets. The formal Letter of Request (LOR) was sent by the Greek Ministry of Defense to the US Department of Defense in November 2020.
Lockheed Martin has now confirmedthat the Greeks have signed the Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) documenting the intention to purchase an initial batch of 20 conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) versions of the F-35A under a US Government Foreign Military Sale at a price of approximately €3.5 billion. On the last day of the Farnborough Airshow (where the Austrian Armed Forces finalized the purchase of its four new Embraer C-390M transport aircraft), the US authorities and the F-35 program office also confirmed this. https://militaeraktuell.at/bundesheer-startet-eigenen-sportkanal/ The jets will be delivered from 2028. So although it will take longer for them to arrive (but quicker than the Czechs for example), they will come in the latest Block 4 configuration or at least have the potential to fully utilize these advances. Incidentally, the LOA also includes an option for 20 more aircraft, which would bring the total value of the deal to around 8.6 billion euros, according to the Greek Ministry of Defense. The decision is an important step in the modernization of the Hellenic Air Force (PA), which recently acquired additional new Rafale fighter jets from Dassault (24 in total, with a further ten in the pipeline), while plans are also underway to phase out older F-16 jets.
The F-35s are to be stationed in Andravida in the north-west of the Greek peninsula of Peloponnese with the 117 Combat Wing, which is currently still flying the phased-out F-4E Phantom – incidentally one of the highlights of this year’s RIAT Air Tattoo. The Greek F-16s (and also Mirage-2000s) could be attractive on the second-hand market; according to Greek media, there are plans to sell the remaining 34 single-seat F-16Cs and six two-seat F-16D Block 30 jets (which will not be modernized to Viper standard) in coordination with NATO and the USA for transfer to Ukraine (-> current news from the Ukraine war).
Qualitative superiority over the Aegean Sea
The move also has particular resonance with Greece’s decades-long mutually tense relationship with regional rival and NATO member Turkey, which was excluded from the F-35 program, after purchasing Russian-made S-400 air defense systems. And back in October 2020, the Greek newspaper Estia even reported that Athens could be the first to receive the F-35s ordered by Turkey, at least 14 of which were built and subsequently withheld before finally being delivered to the US Air Force (-> latest news from the US Armed Forces).
Although the Turkish Air Force (THK) retains (with more than 200 F-16s and the US commitment for new F-16 Block-70) the numerical superiority, the combination of Rafales and F-35s of the Greek Air Force represents a balanced and qualitatively stronger fleet, which is also not completely tied to a single country of origin. Should it – according to does not currently look likely after a recent declaration of friendship – decades of territorial disagreements between NATO partners Greece and Turkey, the Rafales and F-35s – supported by upgraded F-16s – could be expected to gain air superiority over the Aegean. Including at least partial operations from scattered island bases and the execution of long-range land attack missions and attacks against the enemy navy.
Current calculation example based on the F-35
Initial interest from the Greeks in 2020, so delivery from 2028. The Czech Republic finalized its procurement this January and will receive its first F-35s in 2029 (in the USA) and then two years later in 2031. Both nations are NATO countries, where things will presumably happen a lot faster than for us. Here in Germany, the heads of the ministries repeatedly emphasize that the Eurofighter contract gives us more than 30 years until an operational takeover by a successor type by 2037. This means that the first aircraft of a Eurofighter successor should arrive in Austria from 2033/34 so that the new fleet reaches FOC before the military says goodbye to the last colorful Typhoon.
In order to keep to this schedule, a signed contract would be needed by the first half of 2030 at the latest. In other words, the RFP at the beginning of 2029 with a response by the middle/end of 2029, followed by the RFI in 2028, and consequently the fundamental political decision on “what we want” and what it may cost in around 2026/27 – i.e. in the middle of the next legislative period – together with a budget path for 2033 to at least 2037 (end of the Eurofighter). This has also been a topic at the air shows in Fairford and Farnborough in recent days. As a reminder: it took around a decade from the first inofficial information gathering on the Draken successor at the end of the 1990s, from RFI to RFP and the type decision in 2002 with a contract in summer 2003, to the first loading of the first red-white-red Eurofighter in July 2007.
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