Greece will be able to buy 40 F-35A fighter-bombers for $8.6 billion.

For the United States, it was unthinkable to authorize the sale of F-35A fighter-bombers to Greece without satisfying Turkey’s request for the acquisition of F-16 Vipers. And members of the Atlantic Alliance since 1952, to maintain their ties with these two countries.

However, in order to obtain the F-16 Vipers, Turkey had to, among other things, give its approval to Sweden’s accession to NATO. This was done on January 23 after months of discussion.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), responsible for the export of American military equipment under the so-called FMS (Foreign Military Sales) process, wasted no time in publishing a notice to Congress accepting the potential sale of 40 F-16 Vipers. 79 conversion kits for older generation F-16s and a large stockpile of munitions worth an estimated $23 billion.

And, at the same time, it also authorized the potential sale of 40 F-35As to Greece for $8.6 billion (about 7.9 billion euros).

At first glance, if we consider the DSCA notice regarding the possible sale of 24 F-35As to the Czech Republic for an estimated amount of $5.62 billion, this offer looks more advantageous, with a price difference of about $20 million per device. However, the proposal made in Athens does not take into account ammunition… Incidentally, in September 2020, the American administration offered Switzerland 40 F-35As for 6.58 billion dollars (i.e. 164.5 million per unit, including ammunition, editor is.notedh).

In any case, it is not certain that the final contract will be for the delivery of 40 F-35As because, until now, the Greek authorities intended to order 18 to 24 aircraft (including 12 used) from France in addition to the purchase of 24 Rafales.

In its opinion, the DSCA explains that the sale will “allow Greece to modernize its air force, improve its ability to ensure the defense of its airspace, contribute to NATO missions and maintain interoperability with American forces”.

At this point, the F-35A has its own data link system (MADL, for Multi Function Advanced Data Link), which does not allow it to communicate with other NATO aircraft via Link 16 except through the use of a gateway called BACN (Battlefield Airborne Communication). node) is likely to “degrade” its stealth…

It is said that, for DSCA, the F-35A will compensate for the “increasing obsolescence of other Hellenic Air Force aircraft such as the F-4 (Phantom II) and the Mirage 2000 (-5MkII)”.

Meanwhile, while the 1000th F-35 recently rolled off the assembly line, deliveries to the United States are still on hold, due to delays in software upgrades (called Technology Refresh 3 – TR-3) to F-35 Block 4, i.e. version K Which will include all the capabilities listed in its specifications. According to Lockheed-Martin, 120 aircraft may not be delivered in 2024.