Greece: Upgrading of F-16 Begins

[dBSPL]

Greece says it has signed an agreement with U.S. defence contractor Lockheed Martin that will allow a major upgrade of its F-16 fighter jet fleet over the next seven years. The defence ministry procurement agency announced Friday that the deal was signed Tuesday finalising details of Lockheed's use of a Greek subcontractor.

The defence minister, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, told parliament earlier this month that 84 F-16 jets would be upgraded by 2027 to the advanced-tech Viper class in a program estimated at $1.5 billion.

The F-16 V includes an active electronically scanned array radar, a new mission computer and electronic warfare suite, automated ground collision avoidance system, and various cockpit improvements.

The announcement of the deal was announced in the White House during ex-PM Alexis Tsipras’ visit with US President Donald Trump.

The original 2.4bn dollar price tag met with strong opposition, and the deal then went to 1.45bn with Greece paying a maximum 182mn dollars a year through 2027

The upgrade program will be completed in 2027, according to current planning.

On a visit to Athens in October, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signed a revised defence cooperation pact with Greece expanding U.S. military activities at three Greek bases and increasing operations at a US naval base at Souda Bay, on the island of Crete.

Short URL : http://c4news.me/e/jH5ln

 

[denel]

greek people are running around homeless and in dire straits and they are upgrading f-16s.

 

[Vergennes]

greek people are running around homeless and in dire straits and they are upgrading f-16s.

With a more and more threatening neighbor like Turkey who challenges Greece's sovereignty on daily basis,they simply have no choice to keep their armed forces up to date.

Luckily that other Turkish member has been banned,otherwise he would come with fancy numbers and pictures of Turkey's inventory.

 

[waz]

Good Lord these people never learn or have their priorities right. Oh well thank God for the EU right and multiple bailouts.

 

[denel]

With a more and more threatening neighbor like Turkey who challenges Greece's sovereignty on daily basis,they simply have no choice to keep their armed forces up to date.

Luckily that other Turkish member has been banned,otherwise he would come with fancy numbers and pictures of Turkey's inventory.

Actually it is all nonsense. I have many good friends in Greece and have been there on many numerous occasions; entire country is in free fall. People cannot even get basic medicine in hospitals etc. I personally have not seen the situation so dire yet what is the priority? Turkey has enough headaches to try something on the western side.

Good Lord these people never learn or have their priorities right. Oh well thank God for the EU right and multiple bailouts.

No priorities is correct. i have never seen so much people waiting for food handouts in my 25 years of visiting greece.

 

[bsruzm]

With a more and more threatening neighbor like Turkey who challenges Greece's sovereignty on daily basis,they simply have no choice to keep their armed forces up to date.

Luckily that other Turkish member has been banned,otherwise he would come with fancy numbers and pictures of Turkey's inventory.

We didn't challenge their sovereignty yet, I don't see those as a challenge

 

[StormBreaker]

Greece says it has signed an agreement with U.S. defence contractor Lockheed Martin that will allow a major upgrade of its F-16 fighter jet fleet over the next seven years. The defence ministry procurement agency announced Friday that the deal was signed Tuesday finalising details of Lockheed's use of a Greek subcontractor.

The defence minister, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, told parliament earlier this month that 84 F-16 jets would be upgraded by 2027 to the advanced-tech Viper class in a program estimated at $1.5 billion.

The F-16 V includes an active electronically scanned array radar, a new mission computer and electronic warfare suite, automated ground collision avoidance system, and various cockpit improvements.

The announcement of the deal was announced in the White House during ex-PM Alexis Tsipras’ visit with US President Donald Trump.

The original 2.4bn dollar price tag met with strong opposition, and the deal then went to 1.45bn with Greece paying a maximum 182mn dollars a year through 2027

The upgrade program will be completed in 2027, according to current planning.

On a visit to Athens in October, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signed a revised defence cooperation pact with Greece expanding U.S. military activities at three Greek bases and increasing operations at a US naval base at Souda Bay, on the island of Crete.

Short URL : http://c4news.me/e/jH5ln

US is quite a snail when it comes to offering Weapons/upgrades !!!

 

[waz]

No priorities is correct. i have never seen so much people waiting for food handouts in my 25 years of visiting greece.

Been there many times on educational exchanges. Have you come across the many children now being dumped in orphanages as their parents can’t afford to feed them?
God help them.
As for the rest I honestly think the country should hand over its economic running to the EU. The Greek politicians are not worth urinating upon.

 

[Umar Nazir]

84 viper will be upgraded in 1.5 billion dollars only. Greece secure very good deal indeed.

 

[Dante80]

This upgrade will cover the 84 F-16 Block 52+ and Block 52+ Advanced HAF operates. The main ticker for the upgrade is the AN/APG-83 SABR AESA radar, but the changes to avionics, sensor fusion, cockpit, networking, weapon and pod certification etc will be substantial too.

A future program will use the parts obtained from this one to bring the 38 F-16 Block 50 the HAF has to block 50+ Advanced status. Regarding the 32 old F-16 block 30s the HAF has been using for close to 3 decades now, it is rumored that 12 will be sold and 20 will be retained as an operational conversion unit (OCU) for training and leading the pilots to the main platform.

My personal hunch is that in the mid-term, HAF is going to have the following assets.

25 F-35A
84 F-16 block 72 Viper
38 F-16 block 50+ Adv
25 Mirage 2000-5 Mk II

For a total of around 170 combat aircraft (right now we have 227).

ps: This assumes that we sell 12 F-16 block 30s, use 20 F-16 block 30s on an OCU application, and retire both our 34 upgraded F-4E PI2000s and our 16 not upgraded Mirage 2000EGs. Also, buy 25 F-35As and upgrade the 38 F-16 block 50s we have with the equipment we get from the upgrade in the opening post.

 

[Amavous]

on the lighter side Turkey has F-16 & Greece has F-16

F-16 on F-16, That's some incest shit .

on a serious note, I think historic enimity with neighbours can change the overall mentality of nations and it can mess up priorities really bad. As Pakistanis, we all know that very well.

 

[Umar Nazir]

Even small Greece have 154 vipers, almost double than ours. Pakistan missed a golden opportunity during Mushraff time to secure more and more F-16s from US.

 

[StormBreaker]

Even small Greece have 154 vipers, almost double than ours. Pakistan missed a golden opportunity during Mushraff time to secure more and more F-16s from US.

What we are building will eventually prove more worth than what we could have had with all the strings !!!

 

[dBSPL]

Because of Greece's traditional Turkish policy based manipulating countries (which are experiencing problems with Turkey) on their own interests : Syria theater and continued in the eastern Mediterranean issues, Turkey and the US / EU interests/priorities conflicts that created some conjectural advantages for the Greek armed forces.

Our Greek friends may be able to provide more detailed information, Its not just the F-16 modernization, but began to receive significant military assistance from the United States.. On the other hand, they are trying to put some EU countries into the process, especially over the security of territorial waters. I expect that Greece will make full use of these opportunities. Turkey also creating its strategy over this posibility.

 

[Dante80]

One program that comes to mind is using the US Excess Defense Articles (EDA) program to procure some 70 OH-58D helicopters (already delivered, about half will be used for operations). There is also some movement on trying to acquire a couple of Arleigh Burkes after a mild MLU, I don't personally see this happening though.