Nothing bad with the aircraft – Just politics (unfortunately)

There is nothing wrong with the French aircraft. Personally I like it very much and I think that its acquisition could help HAF in many aspects, especially at the time being. However, as it is almost, always the case, politics are involved and in doing so, the US factor plays a strong role among the key players of the market. As it became apparent within the last weeks, Greece will built 6 Fremm frigates and will probably get 15 EC 725 (not ΑS 332C1) as initially proposed. In that way a huge amount of money regarding armaments will go to France and under that auspices it wouldn’t be an uncommon practice for a government to avoid passing over a third contract of such financial magnitude to a company of the same nation… Apart from that, it is quite the truth that HAF officers are more US oriented than EU oriented. Take for instance the huge investments during the past 30 years on Dassault aircrafts and the relatively short stay or exploitation on behalf of HAF. Mirage F1. never took a mid life upgrade though a good performer, especially in the Aegean skies. Mirage 2000 EGM/BGM never been exploited as they should. It is really a miracle, that some senior officials had seen the virtue of upgrading them to Dash 5 (Mk2) now and adding them few thousand more hours of flight time instead of assigning them plane guards roles at military camps… It is really sad to see milions of euros going on that Peace Icarus programme (the upgrade of F-4E to F-4 2000) by EADS instead of purchasing more Mirage 2000-5 Mk2 and asking from Dassault to upgrade the rest EGM/BGM to the same level as an offset programme. Anyway, I must point here to you two interesting facts.
a. Greek fighter pilots that have participated in co – exercises with Rafales do not appriciate that much the aircraft on its current configuration. They suggest that it has no many more things to offer compared to an existed F16 block 52+.
b. Greek pilots at the same time are suggesting that though the F16 block 52+ doesn’t reach the wishful levels of operational availability, it remains an aircraft that provides many vital aspects which have not yet been implemented on Rafale (at least at the F2 variable). i.e. Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing Systems, Conformal fuel tanks, adaptability of US weaponry e.t.c. {Perhaps the F4 edition would have a better chance).

[QUOTE=greg;1352031]Indeed.
In a hopeless effort to promote the Rafale to Greece, Sarkozy proposed an exchange, Rafales for Hellenic M2000s!
This very “aggressively” intelligent proposal, revitalized hopes for HAF’s Rafales, only to meet the hard denial of the Air Force, as that would worsen the proportion of the HAF against the THK.

HAF hierarchy has scheduled the upgrade of the remaining 21 Mirage 2000 to the level of 2000-5 Mk2 in order to maintain a common configuration aircraft fleet (a decision that will be probably implemented after the successful SEG 52 gets adopted to the fleet of the newly accepted Mirage 2000-5 Mk2 (also known as Mirage DASH 5). That is the prime reason for not even considering the above mentioned exchange. Not to mention, that many vital parts of the Mk2 come directly from the Rafale programme.

HAF closer to more F16s

Sources within HAF suggest that its high rank officials proposed the acquisition of further F16s (the proposal referred to the block 52+ Advanced, an exact similar to the one which is scheduled for delivery within 2009) with the preference of them having an additional MFD in the center console and the enhancement of the visualization of the rest two MFDs, so as to support better the SAR pictures captured by the AN/APG-68 V(9) radar and the rest displayed data.
The F100-PW-229 engine is said to have been proposed to remain unaltered for similarity purposes and facilitation of maintenance (Greece has bought more than 90 of this kind).
Yet, last word will be strictly political… (as usual).

ATHENS, 10-6-07

According to articles published on local defence press, HAF is considering the possibility of buing 40 new aircrafts. Sources, report that EF 2000 which was selected few years back as HAF’s new aircraft, looses ground due to its high priced tag (some reports bring it up to almost 90 millinons Euro/unit). Dassault on the other hand has strong ties with the Hellenic Industry due to HAF’s history with F1’s and Mirage (both 2000 and 2000-5mk2). What’s left to see, is whether Greeks will announce officially an international contest for their new fighter procurement programme. Based on sources, HAF is seeking for an aircraft with AESA radar, two engines, advanced electronics/avionics, low observability, “reasonable” cost etc. Still, Greece needs an aircraft mostly for air superiority role and at this point there is a lot of controversy over EF2000 and Rafale…