ATHENS – Greece and Turkey may be in a detente period but building defenses, both wanting American-made F35-fighter jets, with Greece having made a deal to acquire them and Turkey hoping a compromise will also make it eligible.

A contract between the manufacturer Lockheed Martin and the United States government to start making the first batch of 20 F-35’s headed for Greece is expected to be signed next.

The company’s Vice-President for F-35 Business Development told Kathimerini that with the signing of an agreement with Greece in July that, “negotiations for the intergovernmental agreement have begun.”

He said the first jets will be delivered to the Hellenic Air Force in four years. “We are on schedule for the delivery of the initial batch of 20 F-35s in 2028,” he said, the first batch to be built in the US.

The rest could be assembled at the company’s facilities in Italy, one of the three factories worldwide capable of producing F-35’s as Turkey so far remains shut out after acquiring Russian-made S-400 missile systems that undermine the security of NATO and could be used in a conflict against Greece.

“Although there is no official plan regarding where the aircraft will be produced or the final production timelines, we expect the first eight F-35s for Greece to be built in the US. The aircraft are expected to be delivered to Greece in 2030,” he said.

Citing sources not identified, the paper said that construction of the first Greek F-35 is expected to begin in about two years and that after delivery of the 20 ordered so far, there’s an option to buy 20 more after 2030.

Greece and Turkey – as well as the US – are in NATO and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who lobbied to get more F-16s from the US, also is pushing to get the F-35s’ despite acquiring missile defenses from the enemy of the alliance.

DEVIL IN THE DETAILS

The paper said that the US – which is trying to back both Greece and Turkey – is working on a compromise to let Turkey keep the S-400s but have them put under American control with a US contingent at Turkey’s Incirlik Air Force base.

That would allow Erdogan to save face and still get the F-35s and it hasn’t said if he would abide by any conditions if Turkey acquires the more advanced jets so that Greece wouldn’t have an advantage.

The report also said that Turkey has shown no inclination to accept the proposal as it would take power out of the hands of Erdogan, who is expected to meet American security officials while in New York for the United Nations’ annual assembly.

Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former Pentagon official, told the paper talk of the deal is a danger to Greece, especially with outgoing US President Joe Biden having no accountability any more.

“Rather than sell Turkey the F-35s, the Biden team might as well just give the aircraft to Russia and China and skip the middleman. It really is the utmost of strategic stupidity and shows that despite all the rhetoric and advances of the past decade, too many in Washington are prepared to throw Athens and Nicosia under the bus. This must not stand,” he said.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis – whose government renewed a military cooperation agreement with the US – reportedly expressed his reservations to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The report said that pro-Greece forces in the US, which are trying to counter the influential Turkish lobby – are following developments with concern and Florida’s Republican Congressman Gus Bilirakis on guard.

He said that any attempt to find a way to get the F-35s to Turkey  “would leave the United States and our Eastern Mediterranean allies, Greece and Cyprus, more vulnerable to our adversaries. Turkey has no place in the F-35 program.”