According to the Ptizi Defense website, the United States would be ready to transfer 2 Arleigh Burke class destroyers to the Hellenic Navy in 2020 (version translated into English here) officially to strengthen anti-aircraft defense capabilities in the Aegean Sea area. The article indicates relatively credible dynamics, although no firm decisions have been made, according to the site. But this announcement is relevant in more than one way, due to its timing, its nature, and its content, and is reminiscent of the so-called offer concerning 4 American MMSC frigates for €2 billion, while it turned out that the non-formal offer was indeed for 4 frigates, but at €4 billion.
Firstly, the US Navy has not announced Arleigh Burke destroyer decommissioning in the years to come, on the contrary, since the US Navy faces a significant deficit in the face of the rise in power of the Chinese naval force, which receives 4 to 6 new Type 052D and Type 055 destroyers per year. Furthermore, the program to replace the Ticonderoga cruisers is still not launched, or even precisely defined, and neither does the FFG/X program of new generation frigates. In other words, the US Navy needs all of its ships today, and moving two of its most powerful ships to Greece is certainly not part of its game plan.
Secondly, the Burkes are expensive ships, both to purchase and to use, with a large crew, and a large number of missiles. If, according to the Ptizi site, the American offer would “certainly come with the loading of SM2”, the reality will most certainly be different. As the US Navy will certainly not be ready to be deprived of 2 destroyers, it will have difficulty accepting having to give up "for a very low price" according to Ptizi, its SM2 missiles of which we know that it considers the stock insufficient. In this sense, the strategy implemented here is reminiscent of that around two second-hand frigates Adélaide which Lockheed had tried to position against the Naval Group frigates, and which it turned out that the purchase of new SM2 missiles, which were in fact not sold by Australia, multiplied by 2 the price of the operation, making it of little relevance.
But above all, the Greek Ministry of Defense confirmed that it had no knowledge of this American offer. It is therefore very likely that, although they deny it, this announcement is only a new American attempt to create dissension between Paris and Athens on the subject of the FDI program by trying to influence Greek public opinion, while ship configuration was finalized this week. It is therefore urgent to wait before drawing hasty conclusions on this umpteenth pseudo-twist in this matter.