TSAMTO, September 14. On September 12, French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly confirmed on her Twitter page that an agreement had been reached with Greece on the additional supply of six Rafale multi-purpose fighters..
As a result, the number of French fighters sold to Athens increased to 24 units.
As reported by France24.com A day earlier, during the 85th International Diversified Fair in Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki International Fair), Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced his intention to purchase six additional "Rafal".
Greece became the first European country to buy Rafale aircraft. As reported by TSAMTO, in January 2021, Greece and France signed a contract for the supply of 18 multifunctional Rafale fighters from Dassault Aviation to the Greek Air Force, the cost of which was about 1.92 billion rubles. euro ($2.35 billion). Another 400 million euros are intended for the purchase of Meteor air-to-air missiles and the modernization of missiles in service with the Greek Air Force, including the Mika air-to-air missile system, the Scalp missile system and the Exocet anti-ship missiles, for use from the Rafale.
To reduce costs, the Greek Air Force purchased 6 new fighters and 12 aircraft from the French Aerospace Forces (10 single-seat and two double-seat). The first 6 aircraft from the French Air Force should be transferred one per month, starting from July 2021 (6 months after the signing of the contract), 6 new aircraft-by the 20th month after the conclusion of the contract, the remaining 6 aircraft from the French Air Force – by the 26th month (at the beginning of 2023). Dassault Aviation handed over the first aircraft to the Greek Air Force Command on July 21.
Information about the intention of the Greek Defense Ministry to purchase an additional batch of Rafale and increase the number of squadrons formed as part of the Greek Air Force to 24 units first appeared in April. Based on the purchase price of the first batch of aircraft, it was assumed that the purchase of 6 additional fighters would cost 800 million euros.
The aircraft will be delivered to the Greek Air Force in the F3R version developed by Dassault Aviation, Thales, MBDA and Safran. It includes major software and hardware updates, including the integration of long-range guided missiles "Meteor" class "air-to-air" and the latest version of the modular high-precision ammunition AASM (Armement Air-Sol Modulaire) class "air-to-ground" with laser guidance, radar with an active antenna array with electronic scanning RBE2 company Thales, automatic collision avoidance system Auto-GCAS (automatic ground collision avoidance system), improved air refueling system, target designation container TALIOS Thales, the electronic warfare system SPECTRA (Systeme de Protection et d'evitation des Conduites de Tir du Rafale).
In May of this year, Croatia became the second European country to buy Rafale fighters.
