{"id":3602,"date":"2022-07-22T18:42:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-22T15:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/?p=3602"},"modified":"2025-03-24T02:01:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-23T23:01:56","slug":"greece-proceeds-with-purchase-of-lockheed-martin-f-35","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/?p=3602","title":{"rendered":"Greece proceeds with purchase of Lockheed Martin F-35"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Greece has sent an official request to the United States for the purchase of 20 Lockheed Martin-made F-35 fighter jets, the country’s prime minister said on Thursday.<\/strong>

\"Greece
Greece Air Force Lockheed Martin F-35 (Photo by Lockheed Martin)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NATO member Greece spends more than 2% of its gross domestic product on defence spending. It has beefed up its military purchases in recent years as tensions with its neighbour, historic rival and NATO ally Turkey, have resurfaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Greece is also examining the purchase of a second group of the jets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Our intention is to acquire an F-35 squadron with a possible option for a second one. Sending a Letter of Request (LoR) which has happened in the past few days is part of this process,” Mitsotakis told reporters after a NATO summit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sending a request is the first step in a multi-stage process, Mitsotakis said, adding that the government expected deliveries of the jets would begin in 2027-2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is a long process and I am saying this because it means we have the fiscal space allowing us to make such a purchase,” the conservative premier, who faces elections in 2023, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greece and Turkey have been at odds for decades over a series of issues ranging from over flights in the Aegean and the extent of their continental shelves and maritime boundaries to energy resources and ethnically-split Cyprus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mitsotakis first referred to the purchase of F-35 jets during a visit in May to the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Athens ordered 24 Dassault-made Rafale jets last year for 2.5 billion euros ($2.60 billion) and three navy frigates with an option for a fourth one from France for about 3 billion euros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to state ERT TV, the defence ministry also wants to proceed with the upgrade of 38 F-16 fighter jets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, the United States supported the potential sale of U.S. F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, a day after Ankara lifted a veto of NATO membership for Finland and Sweden, saying that strong Turkish defence capabilities would reinforce NATO’s defences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source:<\/strong> ATHENS (Reuters) – July 22, 2022 <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marry Reed <\/a><\/strong>(NATO <\/a><\/strong>\u00a9XAirForces News<\/a> Editor from Greece<\/a><\/strong>) – Facebook.com\/marry.honest.1<\/a> – Marry.Honest78@gmail.com<\/a><\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greece proceeds with purchase of Lockheed Martin F-35<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greece has sent an official request to the United States for the purchase of 20 Lockheed Martin-made F-35 fighter jets, the country’s prime minister said on Thursday. Greece Air Force Lockheed Martin F-35 (Photo...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1670,36,19,174,1727,1708,1,7,31,3088,6,32,21,30,18,16,1673],"tags":[3447,3764,186,193,3765,485,1314,195,192,84,205,412],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3602"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3602"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3605,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3602\/revisions\/3605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}