Lockheed Martin secures $997M contract for Greece F-16s upgrade.

Lockheed Martin recently secured a $996.8 million foreign military sales (FMS) contract for upgrading 84 Hellenic Air Force F-16 jets to the V-configuration, the US Department of Defense said on December 21, 2018.

Two HAF F-16 fighter jets
(Credit: HAF)

Lockheed Martin expects to complete the task by Jun 30, 2027. According to The Greek Reporter newspaper, Lockheed Martin official said in September that the first two years will be spent on engineering for the prototype and the registration of the systems. The installation on the Greek fighter jets will take place during the third year of the program, and the Hellenic Air Force pilots will be trained in the fourth year.

Greece’s government council for foreign affairs and defense, chaired by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, in April approved a plan to upgrade 84 F-16 fighter aircraft to the F-16V standard through a potential $1.45 billion contract.

Greece currently employs a mix of 150 F-16s in Block 30, Block 50, Block 52+, and Block 52+ Advanced configurations.