TSAMTO, March 29. On March 24, the French company Dassault Aviation announced the signing ceremony in Athens for the purchase of six additional Rafale fighters.
The document was signed by Eric Trappier, Chief Executive Officer of Dassault Aviation, and Vice Admiral (retired), Director General of the General Directorate of Defense Investments and Armaments of the Greek Ministry of Defense Aristides Alexopoulos in the presence of Greek Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos and French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly.
The new contract will increase the total number of Rafale aircraft ordered by the Greek Defense Ministry to 24 units. It is planned that six additional Rafale fighters will be delivered to Greece starting in the summer of 2024.
As reported by TSAMTO, in January 2021, Greece and France signed a contract for the supply of 18 multifunctional Rafale fighters to the Greek Air Force from Dassault Aviation, the cost of which amounted to about 1.92 billion. 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, the Scalp missile and the Exocet anti-ship missiles, for use from the Rafale.
To reduce costs, the Greek Air Force ordered 6 new fighters and 12 aircraft from the French Aerospace Forces (10 single and two double). According to the terms of the contract, 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 command of the Greek Air Force in France on July 21, 2021. Before being sent to the Greek base "Tanagra", the first fighters were used to train personnel of the Greek Air Force. On January 19, 2022, the first six Rafale aircraft (four single and two double) landed at the Tanagra Airbase, having flown from the Dassault Aviation enterprise at the Istres French Air Force base.
The delivery of the next batch of Rafale fighters will be completed at the end of 2022 with the aim of placing all ordered aircraft at the Tanagra Airbase by the summer of 2023.
In September 2021, French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly confirmed that an agreement had been reached with Greece on the additional supply of six Rafale multipurpose fighters.
The Greek Parliament approved the purchase of six new Rafale fighter jets in addition to the 18 previously ordered aircraft on February 15, 2022. Their value is estimated at 1.09 billion. euro.
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 Meteor air-to-air guided missiles and the latest version of the AASM (Armement Air-Sol Modulaire) air-to-ground modular air-to-ground ammunition with laser guidance, radar with an active antenna array with electronic scanning of the company RBE2 Thales, an automatic collision avoidance system Auto-GCAS (automatic ground collision avoidance system), an improved air refueling system, a TALIOS targeting container from Thales, an electronic warfare system SPECTRA (Systeme de Protection et d'evitation des Conduites de Tir du Rafale).
