U.S. Urges Greece to Consider Transferring Military Equipment to Ukraine

28 January, 2024 S-300PMU1 air defense system on the KrAZ-260 chassis of the Greek military. Photo credits: Ministry of Defense of Greece The United States encourages Greece to transfer or sell military equipment to Ukraine.

This was reported by the Greek daily Kathimerini. A letter from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Greek Prime Minister Kiriakos Mitsotakis states that Washington is interested in Greek defense assets that could be transferred to Ukraine.

"If these capabilities are of interest to Ukraine, and until the U.S. government assesses their status and value, we can explore the possibility of additional funding for the Greek armed forces in the amount of up to £200 million," the statement said. The letter also states that on September 27, 2022, the process of transferring £30 million in defense procurement funds from the United States to Greece through the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) process was completed to encourage critical support for Ukraine.

Illustrative photo of the Greek Tor SAM system. Photo from open sources.

In theory, in exchange for U.S. equipment and funding, Greece could transfer to Ukraine an additional number of its BMP-1A1s.

Already, 30 units of these vehicles have been transferred to Ukraine. It is known that as of 2022, Greece possessed about 130 Soviet-era infantry fighting vehicles in various technical conditions. The Hellenic Army also has an unknown number of Fagot ATGMs in service, and the Air Defense Force has 21 and 38 Tor and Osa SAM systems.

Moreover, the Hellenic Army is also armed with 523 ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft twin-barreled autocannons. The Hellenic Air Force is armed with several divisions (12) of S-300PMU1 air defense missile systems. Militarnyi previously reported that the U.S.

Department of State has approved the possible sale of F-35A fighter jets and related equipment to Greece for approximately £8.6 billion.

Greek Osa SAM system. Photo from open sources.

Greek defense procurement

The Greek government has asked the United States to purchase up to 40 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter fighter jets of conventional takeoff and landing, and 42 Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-100 jet engines, forty of which will be installed on the aircraft and two will be spare. The potential order also includes spare parts, aircraft communications equipment, special tools, and maintenance equipment.

In addition, the State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale of UH-60M Black Hawk Helicopters and related equipment for an estimated cost of £1.95 billion to the Government of Greece.

The Government of Greece has requested to purchase 35 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, 80 T700-GE 701D engines, 44 AN/AAR-57 Common Missile Warning Systems (CMWS), and 85 H-764U Embedded Global Position Systems with Inertial Navigation (EGI).