Greece has recently announced that it formally approved an offer to buy 20 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters from the United States as part of a major defense overhaul.
“The letter of acceptance for the F-35s has been signed and sent to the United States,” Defense Minister Nikos Dendias said on July 25 while visiting a military air base near Athens.
The purchase, he said, would create “a powerful deterrent presence in our region.”
The delivery of Lockheed Martin’s fifth-generation jets is anticipated to begin in 2028. Greece has the option to buy an additional 20 F-35 jets as part of an $8.6 billion agreement.
Greek officials have stated that acquiring the initial 20 jets, along with supplementary support, will cost approximately $3.5 billion.
The country is modernizing its military through a decade-long initiative following a prolonged financial crisis and ongoing tensions with neighboring NATO ally Türkiye, mainly due to a contentious sea boundary dispute.
Five years ago, Türkiye was removed from the F-35 program due to its purchase of the Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missile system.
Washington argued that these missile systems presented a risk to the advanced fighter jet, while Ankara claimed they would not be integrated into NATO systems.
Following a lengthy and occasionally strained process between the NATO allies, Türkiye recently signed a letter of offer and acceptance for the purchase of F-16 fighter jets from the U.S.
In October 2021, Türkiye requested 40 new Lockheed Martin F-16 aircraft and 79 modernization kits to upgrade its existing fleet of F-16s.
Despite a history of tensions involving irregular migration, the Cyprus conflict, energy exploration, and territorial sovereignty in the Aegean, Türkiye and Greece have recently been making efforts to build confidence and move towards a fragile normalization of their relations.
That moved into a new chapter with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s landmark visit to Athens in December. Erdoğan later received Mitsotakis in Türkiye.