France and Greece agree on fighters and frigates deal, Paris sends aircraft carrier

By Boyko Nikolov On Sep 1, 2020

ATHENS, (BM) – Negotiations between Greece and France are in progress. As the Pentapostagma has informed you for days, Belharra and Rafale will come as a “package” to Greece, while Paris and Athens are preparing other agreements, learned BulgarianMilitary.com.

The data formatted according to information is as follows: the Greek government seeks to proceed with a brave increase in armaments spending by implementing the above two programs as well as smaller individual but equally necessary and necessary while the same period is expected to sign the pre-agreement of the Greek-French defense cooperation.

Sources underline in DefenseReview.gr and Ioannis Nikitas, that the agreement will include many issues such as large-scale and at regular intervals Greek-French aeronautical gymnasiums in the Aegean and the Mediterranean, mooring and air service of French fighter jets in the air, assistance, the armaments mentioned above together with intermediate solutions, cooperation in the defense industry as well as cooperation in energy issues.

Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier is ready

At a time when Ankara is pulling the strings of challenges in the Eastern Mediterranean, the French aircraft carrier “Charles de Gaulle” is ready to sail in this area, as the first Pentapostagma in Greece wrote. Its mission, according to the French media, is unspecified and the number of ships and submarines that accompany it is unspecified.

At the same time, both in the foreground and in the background, the message is sent that the “hot” episode is not a Greek pursuit, but on the other hand, the signal sent to the Turkish side is that it must not make wrong calculations.

“The answer will be overwhelming,” military sources say. “It will be huge in size. We are not going for a few charges “, the same sources add.

Another message that Greece sends to the allied countries is that they should slowly show which way they are. France has already taken a clear position on the side of our country. “We are not going to wash the laundry of all those who have interests in the area. It’s time for a clean slate,” say top sources.

For their part, the Greek Armed Forces maintain the “red” alarm and continue with intense activity in the field of joint training. In fact, the joint exercises with the Armed Forces of the Emirates will start on Monday. The exercises will be conducted at a great geographical depth and will even focus on the region of Libya.

The French foreign minister sharply criticized Europe for its inaction against Turkey

Europe must leave behind the era of innocence and choose its own destiny, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on August 31 at a workshop of EU ambassadors in Paris, Greek TV channel Sky reported.

Drian said that Turkey’s violation of the maritime borders of European countries is “completely unacceptable.” He stated that “it would be a grave mistake to leave our security in the Mediterranean in the hands of others.”

He said that Europe is at a crossroads and “must finally leave behind the era of innocence and naivety” and choose its own destiny, otherwise others will choose it for it.

He stated that 2020 brought a “great discovery” and shattered “certain illusions.” According to him, after this realization “all Europeans should participate in an ambitious project.”

Recall that in August Turkey began developing hydrocarbon deposits in the Mediterranean Sea, which Greece, on the basis of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, refers to its continental shelf.

France, together with Greece and the Republic of Cyprus, conducted exercises in a region where Turkey was conducting exploration for minerals.

According to German sources, a military clash between the Armed Forces of Greece and Turkey was avoided, among other things, thanks to the intervention of the Federal Chancellor of Germany.

The role of Egypt

As the French company is extremely difficult to proceed with the production of 30 aircraft immediately, what the two governments are considering is to reach an agreement with Egypt, so that instead of the 20 Rafale it has ordered, it will initially receive 10 and the other 10 to be given to Greece.

As is known, Egypt, after the recent order of 4 French frigates type Gowind 2500, proceeded to the order of 20 Rafale type fighters. Egypt now has 23 Rafale and one Gowind 2500 corvette in service, while three other Gowind 2500 are in different stages of testing before being officially delivered to the Egyptian Navy.

Starting in 2014, Egypt was one of the most important customers of the French war industry in the world, buying, among others, a FREMM frigate, four Gowind 2500 corvettes, two Mistral helicopters and 24 Rafale fighters. Egypt has been debating for many months about supplying an additional 12-24 Rafale.

Greek Navy received the sixth Roussen-class high-speed missile boat

The command of the Greek Navy has adopted the sixth high-speed missile boat P-78 “Ipopliarhos Caratanasis” of the “Ipopliarchos Roussen” class (also known as the “Super Vita” class) as we reported on August 6.

The ceremony took place on July 28 at the naval base in Scaramanga. The event was attended by the Minister of Defense of Greece Nikos Panayotopoulos.

As we reported, the first contract for the supply of the Greek Navy with three boats built on the basis of the improved Vita corvette project of the British company Vosper Thornycroft (now BAE Systems Maritime) was signed with Elefsis Shipyards in January 2000. Vosper Thornycroft provided material support and equipment.

The lead boat of the series, “Roussen” (R-67), was launched on November 12, 2002 and entered service on December 20, 2005. The last of the three boats was delivered to the Greek Navy in May 2006.

The first option for the additional supply of two boats, Grigoropoulos (P-70) and Ritsos (P-71), was exercised in August 2003. The ceremony of launching the Grigoropoulos was held in December 2005, but further funding for the program was carried out irregularly, which negatively affected the delivery schedule. The boat was transferred to the Greek Navy only in October 2010.

In September 2008, the Greek Navy and Elefsis Shipyards signed an agreement worth € 299 million for the delivery of the sixth and seventh Russen-class boats (P-78 and P-79). Due to financial problems faced by Elefsis Shipyards and a dispute with BAE Systems, the delivery program was practically frozen in 2011.

Cooperation resumed only in December 2014. The fifth boat in the series, Ritsos (P-71), was launched in October 2006 and transferred to the Greek Navy only in October 2015.

In 2016, after the bankruptcy of Elefsis Shipyards, management of the project was transferred to the command of the Greek Navy.

The sixth boat (P-78) “Ipopliarhos Karatansis” was launched in June 2018. Presumably, the last ship in the series, the P-79, will be launched next year. The name of the seventh boat has not yet been officially announced.

The total displacement of the Roussen-class missile boat is 668 tons, length – 61.9 m, width – 9.5 m. The ship is equipped with four diesel engines MTU 16V 595 TE 90 and has a maximum speed of 35 knots. Cruising range – 1800 miles at a speed of 12 knots, crew – 45 people.

Armament consists of one 76/62-mm AU Super Rapid and two 30-mm artillery mounts Oto Melara, SAM Mk.31 RAM with SAM RIM-116A Block 1, as well as two four-container launchers with anti-ship missiles MM-40 “Exoset” (Block .2 with TLU ITL-70A on the first four boats, Block 3 on the rest of the ships). The “Exoset” anti-ship missile system equipped with a radar seeker has a firing range of up to 70 km.

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