The favourite: Greece and Turkey in competition for US weapons

Greece and Turkey have embarked on a period of rapprochement, distracted by bigger problems; but only Greece appears to have forgotten its foreign policy goals

A few days ago, the administration of US president Joe Biden officially backed Greece’s purchase of up to 40 F-35 stealth fighter-bombers. This is the only 5^th generation plane in the Western arsenal which is for sale outside the United States, and the most advanced weapon America sells to its allies. So sensitive is its technology, Egypt’s and the the UAE’s requests for it have been turned down. Turkey was ejected from the F-35 programme because it bought a Russian S-400 air defence array in 2017. The US fears co-location of the S-400 with the F-35 could be used to spy on the fighter’s stealth capabilities. The only country with F-35s in the east Mediterranean is Israel, with three squadrons of 24 planes each. Greece will now be only the second nation in the neighbourhood to own them.

“This is the result of a quiet, methodical and long-term effort, combining Greece’s alliance commitments on international fronts with its national interests,” jubilated Mitsotakis in a written statement, where he attached a letter of notice from secretary of state Antony Blinken.

In the letter, Blinken also offered Greece free military gear under Excess Defense Articles procedures – two C-130 transport planes, 60 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, ten engines for P-3 Orion anti-submarine and marine surveillance planes, and possibly four Littoral Combat Ships (LCS). The LCS did not distinguish itself in US military service. It was deemed unable to defend itself effectively in a highly competitive theatre. Orders for the ship were cut down and eventually it was superseded. But Greece is hard up for defence procurement money despite spending 3.7 percent of its GDP on defence in 2022,[1] because the 2008 financial crisis bankrupted it and froze major procurements for a decade. Government sources tell Hellenica that a plan under discussion is to equip the four LCS Greece would receive with short-range air defences, anti-submarine sonar and Harpoon anti-ship missiles, and pass them off as frigates. Together with three state-of-the-art Belharra frigates currently being built in France, and four German-built MEKO frigates, the youngest currently under commission, the LCS ships would help form an interim replacement to Greece’s ageing fleet of 13 frigates until a new generation of ships can be ordered.