Greece Completes Rafale Fighter Jet Acquisition, Bolstering Air Power

The Hellenic Air Force has delivered its 24th and last Rafale combatant jet, completing its acquisition of the French-made aircraft. The single-seat jet, serial fig 457, arrived astatine Tanagra Air Base’s 114th Combat Wing aft a nonstop formation from Mérignac, Bordeaux, and has been assigned to the 332nd Squadron.

This latest transportation completes the 2nd supplementary declaration that accrued Greece's Rafale fleet from 18 to 24. These recently built craft were ordered successful March 2022 alongside 3 FDI frigates.

In conscionable 4 years, Greece has established a afloat equipped Rafale squadron, importantly shifting the equilibrium of powerfulness successful the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean. The acquisition gives Greece a chiseled aerial superiority vantage implicit Turkey, arsenic it present possesses 4.5th procreation combatant technology, including Meteor medium-range missiles, which Turkey presently lacks. This operation efficaciously secures the Athens Flight Information Region.

The archetypal declaration for 18 Rafale F3R fighters (12 utilized and six new) was signed successful January 2021. This deal, valued astatine astir €2.5 billion, included weapons, archetypal support, aviator and technician training, and infrastructure upgrades astatine Tanagra. This archetypal batch consisted of 14 single-seat and 4 two-seat aircraft.

The archetypal Rafale arrived successful Greece successful July 2021, with the archetypal six remaining successful France for aviator grooming earlier arriving astatine Tanagra successful January 2022. In March 2022, a follow-on bid for six further caller Rafales, valued astatine €1.09 billion, was placed to bring the 332nd Squadron to its afloat spot of 24 aircraft.