The “information anarchy” of the internet, in terms of information even on specialized topics, has caused a false impression these days and in our country about developments and the imminent acquisition of Black Hawk helicopters. The “news” came from a Twitter account of a foreign commentator but was widely reproduced, without noticing that it referred to the statements of the Minister of Health Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos last May and did not present any information on further developments since then.
We’ll reveal what’s true by taking a look back at what’s known so far, some of which we’ve already written about.
On May 12, during the discussion of the Draft Law of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Ratification of the 2nd Protocol to Amend the Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement between Greece and the USA (MDCA), the Minister of Defense said, among other things: “I have in front of me the photograph from the evacuation of Saigon that he gave me a while ago Mr. Pafilis. A lot of going back to the past, a lot of argumentation in terms of the post-civil war climate, of the Cold War, past in any case and not, I would say, in terms of the future. This agreement, this arrangement and rearrangement of alliances, the intensification of the effort to build new alliances, to upgrade existing ones, you know has reference to the future and not to the past. And it would be good if the argument you develop is in terms of the future.
Looking at this helicopter, I can’t help but notice that it is a “Bell Heuy” type helicopter. There are still such helicopters in the availability of the Armed Forces and what comes as a second thought, is that we should go and request – even in terms of surplus defense material – some “Black Hawk” the day after tomorrow that we will go to America, from the surplus you know or to upgrade the existing ones to retire the 1970s, old – reliable, of course – “Bell Heuy” used in the Vietnam War. This is where I really find the usefulness of this photograph, not in its messages and symbolism.”
Therefore, the HYTHA only hinted that there is a consideration for a request to grant Black Hawk as excess material (EDA) from the USA.
But since last January, his readers
DUREI HORSE
they read about the relevant response already received from the US. Specifically, on December 21, 2021, the American Deputy Secretary of the Army responsible for International Exports and Cooperation, Elizabeth Wilson, gave an overall update on a series of requests expressed by the GES. We wrote at the time that the Americans informed that no such helicopters were available as EDA and simply pointed out that “a limited number of retired UH-60As could be made available if the GES moves quickly, otherwise the only alternative is to procure new-build UH-60Ms.”
