The Ministry of National Defense of Greece on May 31, 2022 reported that following the results of previous negotiations with Germany and following the meeting of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on May 31, an agreement was reached on the transfer by Greece of BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles received from the arsenals of the army of the former GDR in 1994 to Ukraine and simultaneous replacement There are an equal number of Marder infantry fighting vehicles transferred to Greece by Germany.
Infantry fighting vehicle BMP-1 of the Greek Army from the garrison of the island of Lesbos, February 2013 (c) bpmsvu.ru
Greece in 1994 received 501 infantry fighting vehicles BMP-1 from the presence of the army of the former GDR as military aid from Germany. All the transferred vehicles were licensed Czechoslovak production and underwent some improvements in the early 1990s according to the standards of the German Army, having the designation BMP-1A1-Ost in the Bundeswehr. Later in the Greek army, some of the vehicles were modified with the installation of a 12.7 mm M2HB machine gun on the roof of the tower.
Of the received BMP-1s, Greece in 2005-2006 transferred 100 vehicles to the new Iraqi army, and in 2016 another 92 vehicles to Egypt. To date, the Greek Ministry of Defense has 299 BMP-1s left, of which only 155 are in units of the Greek army (83 in the linear version and 72 after 2013 were redesigned with the installation of a 23-mm twin anti-aircraft gun ZU-23 instead of the tower). The remaining vehicles are used in the infantry battalions of the Island Command.
Earlier in the 2000s, Greece had already considered the possibility of receiving from Germany from the presence of 422 Marder infantry fighting vehicles being decommissioned by the Bundeswehr to replace its BMP-1 fleet, but then this deal did not take place for financial reasons after the economic crisis of 2008. It is unclear how many Marder infantry fighting vehicles Germany can transfer to Greece now - according to the latest data, the Bundeswehr had 319 Marder infantry fighting vehicles in 2021. Another 100 decommissioned Marder vehicles were in storage at Rheinmetall Group, and long negotiations and agreements on plans to supply them to Ukraine have been conducted recently. It can be assumed that it is the transfer of these 100 Marder to Greece in exchange for the supply of former Greek BMP-1s to Ukraine that is now being discussed in the German-Greek agreement reached.
BMP-1 of the Greek Army, converted with the installation of a 23-mm twin anti-aircraft gun ZU-23 instead of a turret, on the island of Chios (c) bpmsvu.ru
