Aircraft

Greek requirement for up to 40 new aircraft attracts leading players to Athens

The Greek air force’s high-profile future fighter contest drew much of the attention at last week’s Defendory exhibition, although the service’s as-yet undefined requirements and its lack of budget served to dampen the mood among the potential bidding companies.

Athens in late 2004 formally scrapped an earlier decision to select the Eurofighter Typhoon to meet an air force need for up to 90 multi-role strike aircraft, opening the way for a follow-on purchase of Lockheed Martin F-16s and a new competition to meet its longer-term strike requirements. The Greek defence ministry signed an interim deal worth roughly $2 billion with Lockheed last January to expand its current fighter fleet through the acquisition of 30 Block 52+ F-16C/Ds, with these scheduled to be delivered by late 2009. 

According to planning figures provided by the defence ministry earlier this year, a further 40 aircraft – potentially to include another 10 F-16s held as options under its recent order – will be purchased using a remaining allocation of around €3.5 billion ($4.4 billion) from the nation’s 2006-10 budget for defence procurement.

The air force’s new batch of 30-40 fighters is intended to replace its Vought A-7 Corsairs and McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantoms, some of which have been in operational use since the late 1960s.

Leading contenders for the requirement include the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Dassault Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon (promoted by EADS), Gripen International Gripen and Lockheed F-16. Industry sources said at the show that Lockheed’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter could also be considered to meet Greek requirements, but that this will depend on the nation’s eventual specifications and requested delivery dates, which might eliminate its involvement.

Proposals from Russian industry are also likely to be forthcoming in the form of derivatives of the current RSK MiG-29 and Sukhoi Su-30 designs, although neither company exhibited at the show.

Industry sources say the defence ministry could take until 2008 to launch a formal competition to acquire the new fighters, with deliveries to potentially take place from around 2012.