Tensions Greece-Turkey - Meta-Defense.fr

Visiting the Capitol, the Greek Prime Minister wants to acquire the F-35 and warns against Turkey

Since the beginning of the 70s, ie even before its accession to the European Union (1981), Athens has always pursued a balanced strategy of equipping its air forces, relying simultaneously on American and French aircraft. In the 70s and 80s, the Mirage F1s evolved under a blue and white cockade alongside the F4 Phantom 2, F5 Tiger II and A7 Corsair 2, while in the 90s, the Hellenic Mirage 2000s completed its fleet of F-16s. Today, the Greek authorities intend to extend this model which gave convincing results to contain the tensions with the Turkish neighbor, by acquiring French Rafales, and…

Read the article

Greece ready to spend €2 billion to modernize its Leopard 1 and 2 heavy tanks

May 11thMay 11th

If the United States and some of the Europeans tend to soften their positions vis-à-vis Turkey, the Greek authorities and military, for their part, are far from sharing this hope about a possible change of method. and objectives on the part of the Turkish President, R. T Erdogan, and a normalization of relations with Ankara. While Greece can rely on solid growth of 8,1% in 2021 and more than 7% expected in 2022, and its public finances are again in the green, Athens can now focus on modernizing its its ground forces, after devoting…

Read the article

US Congress may authorize the export of new F-16 Block 70 Vipers to Turkey

May 5thMay 5th

In October 2021, the Turkish authorities had officially submitted a request to the Foreign Military Sales, or FMS, the American organization in charge of arms export files to the allies of the United States, to acquire 40 new F-16s. Block 70 Viper and 80 kits to bring its own aircraft to this much more advanced and efficient standard than the F-16 C/D Block 52 currently in service with the Turkish Air Force. If President Biden promised to do what he could to bring this request to fruition, the American Congress, which firmly controls US arms exports, had opposed it, against the background of the crisis concerning the acquisition…

Read the article

Naval Group's Gowind 2500 corvette still favorite in Greek competition

February 7 2022February 7 2022

After the Italian Fincantieri with a lighter version of the Doha-class light frigates, and Lockheed-Martin with the age-old MMSC, it is now up to the British Babcock to try to enter the Greek competition to locally build 5 corvettes to the Hellenic Navy. Like the American Lockheed-Martin, Babcock is offering the same ship in Athens as the one offered in the "Frigate" competition which saw the success of the FDI Belharra, in this case a less well-armed and equipped version. of its 140 ton ArrowHead 5.700 frigate which has been retained by the Royal Navy for the Type 31 class,…

Read the article

The first Greek Rafales operational just 12 months after the Athens order

January 6 2022January 6 2022

The first 6 Rafale combat aircraft ordered by Greece in January 2021 will join the 114th combat squadron at the Tanagra base in Boeotia, north of Athens, between January 17 and 19, 2022, barely a year after the first order for 18 aircraft, including 12 second-hand aircraft taken from the Air and Space Force fleet and modernized to F3R standard by Dassault Aviation, has been signed. This air base, close to the facilities of the local industrialist HAI, had previously hosted the Greek Mirage F1 from 1973 to 2003, then the Air Force Mirage 2000-5...

Read the article

Competition rages on between Naval Group, Fincantieri and Damen for Greek corvettes

January 5 2022January 5 2022

The competition for the construction and delivery of 5 corvettes for the Hellenic Navy could well be the repetition of the one that raged over the frigates, and which saw, finally, Athens arbitrate in favor of the Defense and Intervention Frigate or FDI Belharra of Naval Group last September, after two years of intense negotiations and sensational reversals. As before, despite the advanced discussions on this subject between the French manufacturer and the Greek authorities, the European and American competitors of Naval Group are determined not to facilitate the negotiations, with a lot of counter-proposals and…

Read the article

Greece, Belgium .. These countries which show the way for Defense Europe

November 19, 2021March 26, 2022

Since the resurgence of the concept of European defense following the election of President Macron in 2017 and the start of an active but oh so chaotic cooperation with Berlin, the progress recorded in the field has been mixed. At the European level, there is now no longer any doubt that the Permanent Structured Cooperation, or PESCO, represents an effective format for supporting this European cooperation, and the latest version of projects presented on November 16, 2021, marks in this respect a clear shift towards technological and industrial cooperation focused on operational objectives and shortened schedules, in accordance with the needs of the armies. In the field…

Read the article

Unsurprisingly, the US Congress is hostile to the export of F-16s to Turkey

November 3, 2021November 3, 2021

The situation tends to become more complex for President Erdogan in the matter of the acquisition of new 40 new American F-16s as well as 80 kits to transform part of his 240 aircraft in service into F-16 Block 70 Viper, the most advanced version of the Lockheed Martin aircraft, notably carrying the new EASA AN/APG-83 radar, as well as modernized avionics and an advanced self-defense suite. Indeed, while US President Joe Biden kicked into touch by promising his Turkish counterpart RT Erdogan to “do everything he can” to push this request forward, in a diplomatic way…

Read the article

Joe Biden vows to do 'all he can' for new Turkish F-16s

November 2, 2021November 8, 2021

As we wrote, President Erdogan's request to the United States to acquire around forty new F-16 fighters, as well as 80 kits to modernize part of his fleet to the Block 70 Viper standard, clearly the American authorities, and in particular President Biden, in a very delicate position, especially since Ankara threatens to turn to Russia and its Su-35s or even Su-57Es if Washington were to refuse these licenses export. At the same time, the Turkish authorities continue to negotiate with Moscow the acquisition of new S-400 systems, as well as technological partnerships in the field of…

Read the article

Greece signs Letter of Intent for 2 frigates and 6 used mine hunters with the Netherlands

29th October29th October

During the broad consultation carried out for Athens to acquire new frigates as part of the modernization of the Hellenic Navy, two offers seemed to stand out from the lot, the FDI Belharra from Naval Group, finally chosen by Athens, and the Sigma 15515 from the Dutch Lady. In addition to the qualities of the Dutch frigate, Amsterdam proposed the transfer of its two Karel Doorman class frigates as a temporary solution. However, these ships had, in the eyes of the Hellenic Navy, a much higher interest than the two Type 70 frigates that Paris proposed to offer to Athens if the latter were to choose the FDI. Eventually he…

Read the article