The first two Belh@rra will be delivered in 2025. The third is expected to be delivered in 2026. The fourth may be delivered in the same year
OF MANOS CHARALAMPAKI – SOURCE: THE NEWS – [Μετατροπή σε κείμενο:
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With the purchase of the fourth Belh@rra frigate, i.e. with the further strengthening of the Armed Forces, Athens responds to Ankara’s crescendo of provocation and revisionism.
According to information, the activation of the option for the purchase of another state-of-the-art frigate from the French has been “locked”. This is something that was agreed last September (2021) between Athens and Paris, when the purchase of three frigates for the Navy was finally decided. As everything shows, the government and the Ministry of Defense are proceeding with this option with the aim of the Navy having a mini-flotilla – 4 brand new and ready-to-fight frigates – in a relatively short period of time.
The fact that the first two will be delivered in 2025, in record time, well ahead of schedule, may also have played a role in activating the option to purchase the fourth. And this is because the work is progressing rapidly, as the GEN staff have also found. The third Belh@rra frigate is expected to be delivered in 2026, while the Navy may have the fourth in the Fleet in the same year or a little later. It should not be forgotten that the Belh@rra digital frigates will not only have massive anti-aircraft capabilities – as they will be equipped with 32 Aster anti-aircraft missiles – a constant requirement of the staff, but they will be able with the range of radars (seafire) and the range of of their weapons to “build” a firewall at sea within a radius of tens of nautical miles.
It is noted that the government and the Ministry of National Defense were also considering the option of acquiring 3 corvettes and several proposals had been considered in the previous period. However, it was decided that the program might be delayed enough – as there was also a condition that at least 2-3 ships be “built” in Greece – since the shipyards of Elefsina and Skaramanga are not yet ready to undertake such large projects.
Under these circumstances, the most immediate solution for the purchase of a fourth Belh@rra frigate seems to have now been qualified. Besides, the budget for the equipment support of the PN was specific, around two billion euros.
If the fourth Belh@rra costs around one billion euros, another 500 million euros remain for the modernization of the 4 MEKO frigates.
However, the priority of the Ministry of Defense and the GEN is still the modernization program of the 4 MEKO frigates. Information indicates that the Ministry of Defense and the Navy are speeding up the procedures. The good thing about the reinforcement of the Fleet is that tomorrow, the newly built high-speed guided missile patrol boat “Lieutenant Vlahakos” will be handed over and – finally – join the PN. It is recalled that the missile shipbuilding program started in the early 2000s but experienced long delays.
In the meantime, the Armed Forces are on alert and ready to fend off any possible threat, since the planning by both the GEETHA and the other staffs is for continuous high-level exercises. In this context, the Greece-France exercise Argo 22 continues in the wider area of Volos, Skyros, Ag. Efstratiou, the exercise of the PN “Longhi” and the exercise “Coast Recognition 2022” in the Upper Aegean.
