Greece announced a plan to modernize 85 of its 150 F-16 fightersto bring them to the Vyper standard, with new equipment such as an AESA radar and compliant tanks. The contract is worth $1,45 billion.
At the same time, the Czech Republic Air Force announced that it had completed the modernization of its 14 Swedish Gripen fighters to the MS 20 standard, including the modernization of electronics and avionics, as well as new weapons carrying capabilities.
The arrival of new generation fighters, such as Typhoon, Rafale or the F-35, created a gap within NATO, dividing the alliance into 3+1 categories:
- countries that can pay for such devices, such as France, Italy, Germany, Norway or the United Kingdom
- countries that can afford such devices at the cost of a significant reduction in format, such as the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Spain
- countries not being able to afford its aircraft, forced to equip themselves with modernized light fighters or second-hand fighters. This is the case for Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece and Portugal.
- Finally, countries which cannot finance a fighter air force, even if the need is very significant, such as the 3 Baltic states.
It is relevant to ask whether the current direction taken by both European and American aircraft manufacturers does not risk creating more and more countries falling into the 3rd category, instead of trying to level up the alliance?