{"id":16959,"date":"2022-01-21T17:16:56","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T11:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aviationa2z.com\/?p=16959"},"modified":"2022-01-21T17:16:59","modified_gmt":"2022-01-21T11:46:59","slug":"greece-receives-six-fighter-jets-from-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aviationa2z.com\/index.php\/2022\/01\/21\/greece-receives-six-fighter-jets-from-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Greece receives six fighter jets from France"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A ceremony at the Tanagra Air Force Base marked the coming, in which a Greek priest blessed the jets and their pilots.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greece\u2019s newly-acquired fourth generation Rafale aircraft made a series of deafening overpasses before landing at Tanagra Air Force <\/a>Base, 70km (43 miles) north of Athens. They had flown from Merignac airport near Bordeaux.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A ceremony was held at the airbase to mark their coming, in which a Greek priest blessed the jets and their pilots. The Rafale mark a turning point in Greek defense capabilities, defense experts say, because they have better-advanced targeting and weaponry than anything seen in the Aegean theatre until currently.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThey have extremely advanced [surveillance], maybe greater than 100km [62 miles], in the form of a camera that scans for the thermal signature of other aircraft,\u201d said Konstantinos Grivas, who teaches weapons systems at the Hellenic Army Academy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnlike radar, this doesn\u2019t let the enemy understand when they\u2019ve been spotted because it\u2019s not emitting a beam,\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe most important thing of all is this plane arrives with the Meteor air-to-air missile, which is currently considered the best of its kind in the Western arsenal. Its range is officially 120km (75 miles), but it is thought that it can be as much as 150km (93km).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese six planes can release a very big firepower without the enemy knowing they\u2019re even there.\u201dGreek pilots and technicians have spent a year training on the aircraft in France<\/a>, so they will enter service immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greece\u2019s air force <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Greece\u2019s air force<\/a> is among the most active in NATO because Greek pilots are always intercepting Turkish F-16 fighter jets performing incursions into its airspace or overflying Greek islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defence Minister Nikos Panayotopoulos told that Rafale would be doing more significant work. \u201cIt\u2019s not a weapon we have for daily interceptions over the Aegean, it\u2019s a strategic weapon,\u201d he told.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pilot Theodoros Christodoulou offered an opinion of what Rafale missions might affect. \u201cIn older aircraft, if the radar locked on a mark, only that radar was locked on it. Here \u2026 one aircraft can give on its information to another,\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Grivas calls this capability of being an eye in the sky and giving on targeting knowledge to other air, naval and land-based assets a \u201cforce multiplier\u201d. Chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Konstantinos Floros told this networking ability across branches of the Greek military was already up and operating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greece placed a fast-track order for 18 Rafale jets and weapons systems for 2.32 billion euros ($2.63bn) just 16 months ago. Parliament ratified the agreements in January 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greece six new aircraft that <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Dassault Aviation, which makes the aircraft, sold Greece <\/a>six latest aircraft that were already in production for Egypt. Greece is to receive six used planes from the French air force this year, and six following year. It has also ordered an additional six new aircraft to make up a squadron of 24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greece last year also ordered three state-of-the-art Belharra frigates from France\u2019s Naval Group for an estimated 3 billion euros ($3.4bn). The Belharra and Rafale buy underpin an unprecedented intra-NATO mutual defense treaty Greece and France signed last October.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n