Greece Contemplates Upgrading Its Military
Nov 30, 2008 #content td div img { padding-right:10px; padding-
At the height of the Cold War, Greece was an important ally of the U.S. in helping to check the Soviet Union's potential to threaten the eastern Mediterranean. Since then, the nation has remained a vital player in the region's security.
Along the way, that evolution has done little to suppress Greece's appetite for modern weapon systems, and today its shopping list may be valued at up to $12 billion over the next 10 years. Less clear is the source of those new armaments and how Athens might go about procuring them.
The Greek government makes no excuses for maintaining relationships with all equipment sources, including Russia. What troubles some U.S. defense contractors is not that they have competition, but that the rules don't always seem fair and balanced for all players - a situation that has been exacerbated by a procurement process whose clarity, while improving, still leaves much to be desired, they claim.
Evangelos V. Vasilakos, who oversees the purchase of all military equipment, bristles at any suggestions that U.S. military contractors have failed to capture their fair share of Greece's defense business. All you have to do is look at the platforms Greece has bought in the last decade, especially aircraft, and see that most of them came from U.S. factories, he points out. Lockheed Martin historically has been the principal supplier of fighters to the Greek air force. Vasilakos acknowledges that some weapons were acquired in an "unorthodox manner," but he says Greece has done more than any other country within the European Union to increase the openness of its procurement process.
For example, in February, Greece adopted a legislative framework that previously did not exist for buying armaments, he points out. But Vasilakos also is quick to add that Greece will do whatever is in the country's best interests, including using government-to-government purchase agreements.
All the same, U.S. Army Col. Steve G. Boukedes acknowledges that Greece has been attempting to be more open in how it buys military equipment. He is chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation-Greece and is the principal interface between U.S. defense contractors and the Greek military. "There seems to be less wheeling and dealing," he asserts.
Greece's defense spending amounted to about 2.4% of the country's gross national product in 2006, the last year for which there are complete figures, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies' "Military Balance" assessment. That figure compares with about 1.7% for all European countries that belong to NATO.
There are a variety of reasons why Greece wants to maintain a robust program of defense modernization. In the Balkans, Greece helps to stabilize a region that has a history of turmoil, notes F. Stephen Larrabee, a European security specialist at the Rand Corp. "You can't dismiss the potential for outside powers to use age-old minority issues as a pretext for territorial claims."
Greece also participates in the global war on terrorism, as well as peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Moreover, the country is the "framework" nation in the EU Battle Group Helbroc - which includes Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus - and that, too, requires Greece to maintain a modern military.
Link to Full story
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/gene...ne=Greece Contemplates Upgrading Its Military
Nov 30, 2008 #content td div img { padding-right:10px; padding-
At the height of the Cold War, Greece was an important ally of the U.S. in helping to check the Soviet Union's potential to threaten the eastern Mediterranean. Since then, the nation has remained a vital player in the region's security.
Along the way, that evolution has done little to suppress Greece's appetite for modern weapon systems, and today its shopping list may be valued at up to $12 billion over the next 10 years. Less clear is the source of those new armaments and how Athens might go about procuring them.
The Greek government makes no excuses for maintaining relationships with all equipment sources, including Russia. What troubles some U.S. defense contractors is not that they have competition, but that the rules don't always seem fair and balanced for all players - a situation that has been exacerbated by a procurement process whose clarity, while improving, still leaves much to be desired, they claim.
Evangelos V. Vasilakos, who oversees the purchase of all military equipment, bristles at any suggestions that U.S. military contractors have failed to capture their fair share of Greece's defense business. All you have to do is look at the platforms Greece has bought in the last decade, especially aircraft, and see that most of them came from U.S. factories, he points out. Lockheed Martin historically has been the principal supplier of fighters to the Greek air force. Vasilakos acknowledges that some weapons were acquired in an "unorthodox manner," but he says Greece has done more than any other country within the European Union to increase the openness of its procurement process.
For example, in February, Greece adopted a legislative framework that previously did not exist for buying armaments, he points out. But Vasilakos also is quick to add that Greece will do whatever is in the country's best interests, including using government-to-government purchase agreements.
All the same, U.S. Army Col. Steve G. Boukedes acknowledges that Greece has been attempting to be more open in how it buys military equipment. He is chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation-Greece and is the principal interface between U.S. defense contractors and the Greek military. "There seems to be less wheeling and dealing," he asserts.
Greece's defense spending amounted to about 2.4% of the country's gross national product in 2006, the last year for which there are complete figures, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies' "Military Balance" assessment. That figure compares with about 1.7% for all European countries that belong to NATO.
There are a variety of reasons why Greece wants to maintain a robust program of defense modernization. In the Balkans, Greece helps to stabilize a region that has a history of turmoil, notes F. Stephen Larrabee, a European security specialist at the Rand Corp. "You can't dismiss the potential for outside powers to use age-old minority issues as a pretext for territorial claims."
Greece also participates in the global war on terrorism, as well as peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Moreover, the country is the "framework" nation in the EU Battle Group Helbroc - which includes Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus - and that, too, requires Greece to maintain a modern military.
Link to Full story
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/gene...ne=Greece Contemplates Upgrading Its Military
