For the United States, it was inconceivable to authorize the sale of F-35A fighter-bombers to Greece without also satisfying Turkey’s request for the acquisition of F-16 Vipers. And this in order to preserve their relations with these two countries, members of the Atlantic Alliance since 1952.
However, in order to obtain 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 discussions.
Responsible for exports of American military equipment under the so-called FMS procedure [Foreign Military Sales]the Defense Security Cooperation Agency [DSCA] was quick to issue a notice asking Congress to accept the potential sale of 40 F-16 Vipers, 79 conversion kits for older generation F-16s and a large batch of munitions for a amount estimated at $23 billion.
And, at the same time, it also authorized the potential sale of 40 F-35As to Greece, for $8.6 billion [environ 7,9 milliards d’euros].
At first glance, if we consider the DSCA notice regarding the potential sale of 24 F-35As to the Czech Republic for an estimated amount of $5.62 billion, this offer appears more advantageous, with a price difference approximately $20 million per device. However, the proposal made in Athens does not take into account munitions… Incidentally, in September 2020, the American administration offered 40 F-35As to Switzerland for $6.58 billion [soit un prix unitaire de 164,5 millions, munitions comprises, ndlr].
In any case, it is not certain that the final contract will be for the delivery of 40 F-35As given that, until now, the Greek authorities intended to order between 18 and 24 aircraft, in addition to the purchase of 24 Rafale [dont 12 d’occasion] with France.
In its opinion, the DSCA explains that this sale “will allow Greece to modernize its air force, improve its capacity to ensure the defense of its airspace, contribute to NATO missions and maintain interoperability” with American forces.
On this point, the F-35A has its own data link system [MADL, pour Multi Function Advanced Data Link]which does not allow it to communicate with other NATO aircraft via Link 16, except to use a gateway called BACN [Battlefield Airbone Communication Node] likely to “degrade” its stealth…
That being said, for the 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] “.
In the meantime, while the 1000th F-35 recently rolled off the assembly lines, deliveries are still suspended in the United States, due to software upgrade delays [appelée Technology Refresh 3 – TR-3] supposed to pave the way for the F-35 Block 4, that is to say the version which will include all the capabilities listed in its specifications. According to Lockheed-Martin, 120 aircraft may not be delivered in 2024.