US State Department Approves Potential F-35A Sale To Greece
The United States State Department notified Congress on Friday that it has approved a potential sale of up to 40 F-35A Lightning IIs to Greece.
In a press release, the State Department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency estimated the total value of the sale at $8.6 billion, inclusive of electronic warfare, mission support and training equipment, and support services. No munitions for the F-35A are included in the disclosed sales package.
Congressional notification of the sale came alongside that of a potential sale of F-16s to Turkey, with lawmakers notified of both sales after Turkey delivered documents ratifying its approval of Sweden’s membership of NATO to the United States. The Biden administration had previously indicated that State Department approval of the Turkish F-16 sale was dependent on Ankara’s ratification of Sweden’s NATO application, although lawmakers may vote to block the sale.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced in June 2022 that he had submitted a letter of request for the purchase of 20 F-35s and an option for an additional 20, with each batch of 20 aircraft intended to form a single squadron. At the time, Mitsotakis told reporters that deliveries were expected to take place between 2027 and 2028, allowing Athens the “fiscal space” needed to afford the purchase.
The connection of the two potential sales appears to be an attempt by the administration to strike a diplomatic balance between Greece and Turkey, which have had long-simmering tensions over territorial and natural resource disputes despite both being NATO allies.
In 2022, Geoffrey Pyatt, the US ambassador to Greece at the time, said that Greek F-35 procurement would result in Greek membership of the F-35 program. Turkey was expelled from the F-35 program in 2019 after it went ahead with the procurement of Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile systems despite multiple US warnings, with all Turkish contractors involved with the aircraft’s construction subsequently replaced.