Greece-Turkey arms race continues
The green light given by the United States to Greece’s acquisition of the F-35 multi-role fighter and to the sale of F-16 fighters and upgrade kits to Turkey highlights the fact that the two nominal NATO allies are actually facing each other, vying for supremacy in the air, land and sea.
The F-35 sale will confirm Greece’s advantage as far as fighters are concerned. However, Turkey’s greater weapons systems building capabilities underscore its own advantage in unmanned aerial vehicles (UVAs) and ships. This lack of building capability recently forced Greece to scale back its acquisition of naval vessels, despite the civilian and military leadership’s repeatedly stated commitment to significantly upgrade the country’s naval capabilities by 2030.
Greece’s Air Force already possesses the advanced French-made Rafale fighter and is upgrading 84 F-16s to the Viper configuration. But the latter has hit a snag, as there are compatibility issues between the planes electronic countermeasures systems and the radars. Greece also expects to get the first F-35s well before 2030.
Turkey almost exclusively relies on F-16s and a few aged Phantoms. The upgrading kits and the acquisition of 900 missiles for the planes will help it achieve a better balance.
It seems, actually, that the US wants Greece to be a step ahead of Turkey in aircraft technology to balance out the latter’s clear advantage in UAVs.
Turkey has, in fact, become a major exporter of UAVs, which account for the great majority of its claimed €5.5 billion earnings from arms exports.
Recently, Defense Minister Nikos Dendias said Greece should boost its own arms production and buy less off the shelf. But a lot must be done before this becomes reality.
