ATHENS – Facing belligerence and the chance of a conflict with Turkey, Greece will add another 15 ships to its Navy by 2026, starting with frigates from France and American warships.

A contract for the supply of three French FDI frigates for $3.51 billion will be completed and in order for the procedures to proceed quickly and sent to Parliament, said Kathimerini.

Then willcome new corvettes with the French offering the Gowind, the Dutch the Sigma 10514, while the Italians are pushing the Doha and said they could be built at Greece’s Elefsina Shipyards.

That comes as the US State Department okayed the potential sale of four Multi-Mission Surface Combatant (MMSC) ships for $6.9 billion to Greece and $2.5 billion worth of upgrades to Greece’s existing Meko ships.

The US proposal would include four MMSC ships, similar to the 370-plus-foot-long Littoral Combat Ships used by the US Navy, and associated sonars, weapons, spares and technical support.

The Pentagon said Lockheed Martin – which lost out on a bid to France to sell warships to Greeece – was the prime contractor as Greece’s New Democracy government had renewed a defense agreement with the US.

If the supplies of the two Dutch M-class frigates and six Alkmaar-class minehunters proceed that will add to the buildup, adding pressure to the Navy by 2023 to decomission oler ships to save staff and resources from an annual maintenance budget of 80 million euros ($90.42 million) the paper also said.