Amid rising tensions in the eastern Mediterranean due to Turkey’s escalating belligerence in the region, the Greek government announced an upgrade to its Armed Forces, including the acquisition of 24 French multi-role Dassault Rafale aircraft, 12 of which will be new and the rest will be slightly used by the French Air Force.

The first six of these state-of-the-art aircraft of the Hellenic Air Force (HAF) have already been incorporated into the squadron. 

With this deal, the Hellenic Air Force (HAF) has effectively incorporated a whole new squadron of top 4.5 Gen fighter jets of the highest caliber into its defence network.

The Rafael (“Burst of Fire” or “Gust of Wind”) has seen combat action in the war theaters of Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan and Mali.

Incorporating stealth technology, the Rafale is extremely agile, with a superior climb rate, sustained turn performance, and ability to super-cruise (maintain supersonic flight without using fuel-gulping afterburners) at Mach 1.4 while carrying weapons.

The Rafale’s all-moving canards —a second set of small wings near the nose— give the Rafale excellent lift and low-altitude speed and performance.

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The backbone of the Hellenic Air Force (HAF) are 154 Lockheed Martin F-16C/Ds and 24 Mirage 2000-5Mk2. It also has 34 McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantoms.

Greece is upgrading 84 of its F-16s to the Viper standard. This will see the jets receive an Active Electronically Scanned Array radar in the form of the Northrop Grumman APG-83, which offers a number of improvements including greater detection and tracking ranges, interleaved air-to-air and air-to-surface modes, and improved electronic protection.

As for the air forces that have chosen it, the French Rafale has also been selected by India, Egypt and Qatar, while, according to official information.

The inclusion of such superior aircraft in Greece’s Air Force will definitely boost the country’s military deterrence power and possibly “dissuade” any potential threats by NATO “allies”.