Greece upgrades 85 F-16 to the Viper level, partially financed by the USA !

Greece finally has given the green light for the F-16 Upgrade program to start!

Greece on 30th of April 2018 singed the Letter of Acceptance (LOA) for the Viper Upgrade program, after a decision was made during the Saturday’s (28 April) last-minute KYSEA (Goverment Council on Defense and Foreign Policy). It took almost 6 months of negotiations between the Greek Goverment and the USAF (which is the prime guarantor for the progress and supervision of the Upgrade Program) until a contract was signed to upgrade 85 of the 154 F-16 to the latest Block 70/72 Viper variant. Total cost of the program is around 1.45 billion $.

2018 Aegean in Flames: A concert of Harpoons and Exocets

Scalp EG is one of the few strategic assets in the Greek Arsenal that can tip the balance

 

Following the last week’s hot incident, when a Patrol ship of the Turkish Coast Guard intentionally managed to ram a Greek Patrol ship near IMIA islands, the possibility of armed conflict rises. During the collision, the OPV 90 Gaydos had suffered serious damage in the rear of its hull. This combined with the fact that the Turkish navy prohibited an Italian Offshore Drilling Ship belonging to ENI, to conduct research drills inside Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone, raises a rather unfriendly situation between Greece and Turkey.

A possible armed event in the following months is highly anticipated. In this article we would try to simulate a possible Greek Armed Response to Turkey’s ambition to control the Aegean and Cyprus oil Reserves in Eastern Med.

Greek Media obsessed with Turkey’s S-400 SAM deal

The aqcuisition of 4 S-400 Battalions for the needs of the TuAF is a big game changer in the Greek-Turkey arms race

The latest month initial rumours about a realistic Turkish S-400 deal became almost a certainty. A few days ago, President of Turkey, Reztep Tayip Erdogan confirmed that the first payment of the 2.5 billion dollar deal have been deposited to the Russians. Official reports have not disclosed any details yet, but according to Turkish media, this deal included the acquisition of 4xS-400 battalions along with a double payload of missiles and technology transfer. The latter will help Turkey integrate the S-400 Hi-SAM into their national Integrated Air Defence System. ASESLAN would probably be one of the key local contributors. This company has a vast amount of experience in military RF equipment and electronics.

Even if Turkey wanted to manufacture some parts of the S-400 systems locally, this was denied from the Russian side. All missile batteries will be manufactured in Russia and be delivered in a 2-year period. It is not known yet if the 48N6E3 EDM missile (250 km range) or the 400 km 40N6 missile will be the main armament of those SAMs. Neither if anti-ballistic 9M96 (can be quad packed, range 120 km) with high Pk missiles will be part of the deal.