A relevant alternate defense minister over the weekend provided more details over a deal to upgrade Greece’s fleet of US-made F-16s, which was abruptly revealed during Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ White House appearance with Donald Trump last week in Washington.
Alternate DM Dimitris Vitsas said a Greek request was made in February 2017, with two separate expressions of interest submitted.
“The Americans, as usual, picked the most expensive one, and then sent it to Congress. This agreement, which was tabled in Congress on Oct. 16, and leaves Congress on Nov. 2, has a ceiling of 2.4 billion USD. For us it’s clear that we need to place on the table the country’s security needs, on the one hand, while on the other placing the leeway allowed by the budget,” he said.
Vitsas, who hails from the radical leftist SYRIZA party, as opposed to Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, the leader of the small rightist-populist AN.EL party that serves as the junior coalition partner, echoed the standing government position that the upgrade agreement is actually worth 1.1 billion euros.
In a bid to emphasize the point, Vitsas said several types of upgrade programs are available.
“What’s important is that (the planes) will be upgraded to viper (category). We’ve calculated a certain number, a majority of the 123 aircraft (F-16s in the Greek arsenal).”
