NATO member Greece will become the next operator of the Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighters, under an agreement covering up to 40 aircraft.
Athens on 25 July signed a letter of offer and acceptance with F-35 manufacturer Lockheed covering 20 jets, with the option for a further 20 examples.
The fighters will be acquired through the USA’s Foreign Military Sales (FMS) system, as is the case for all overseas purchases of the fifth-generation jet.
Greece has for years sought to acquire the F-35 capability, but Washington had slow-walked FMS approval on the sale out of concern over inflaming tensions with neighbouring Turkey. The USA has barred Ankara from obtaining F-35s, after Turkey opted to purchase a Russian air defence system.
Despite both being current members of the NATO mutual defence alliance, Turkey and Greece have fought wars in the past and occasionally threatened one another with military action.
The deadlock broke in January, when elected legislators in the US Congress brokered a two-part deal that simultaneously saw Greece receive FMS approval for the F-35 purchase, while Turkey gained authorisation for a long-sought purchase of new Lockheed F-16V fighters.
“We are excited to welcome Greece into the F-35 enterprise,” says US Air Force Lieutenant General Mike Schmidt, director of the Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Program Office. “The F-35 will provide exceptional capability to the Hellenic Air Force, build interoperability between our allies and strengthen the combat effectiveness for all of NATO.”
The stealth fighters offset the “increasing obsolescence” of other Hellenic air force aircraft such as the McDonnell Douglas F-4 and Dassault Mirage 2000, according to arms regulators at the US Department of State who approved the sale.
Greece joins a growing chorus of European countries now operating the F-35. By the mid-2030s there will be over 600 of the single-engined jets operating in Europe, flown by more than 10 countries. This includes two US Air Force squadrons stationed in the UK.
“The F-35’s growing presence across Europe is a powerful testament of alliance-based deterrence and is setting the foundation for NATO and allied nations’ next-generation air power capability,” says Mara Motherway, Lockheed’s vice-president of strategy and business development.
Lockheed recently resumed delivery of new-build F-35s after a roughly year-long hiatus. The Pentagon had stopped accepting new deliveries while Lockheed worked to certificate the latest technical configuration of the fighter jet.
However, US defence officials reversed that stance on 19 July over concerns about stored aircraft being damaged and constraints on pilot training.
Lockheed now plans to simultaneously deliver stored and new-build F-35s. The airframer says it will take approximately 12-18 months to clear out the excess inventory.
The company expects to soon be delivering 20 aircraft per month, comprising seven stored and 13 freshly-built jets.
