Greece Expresses Interest in Co-production of Frigates With the US

Greece is in talks with the US to co-produce US-designed Constellation-class frigates, Defense Minister Nikos Dendias said on Monday.

“On January 16, we received a letter from the US Navy accepting, in principle, our interest in the co-design and co-production of the seven advanced Constellation-class frigates in Greek shipyards,” Dendias said.

“Therefore, based on this proposal, if there is an agreement, Greece could participate in this program right from the beginning, in the design phase,” he said.

This would be a significant step forward for both the Greek Navy and the domestic shipbuilding industry, he remarked.

Greece is also expecting to receive three new French frigates, including a fourth if things go as planned, in a deal valued at around $3.5 billion.

These developments followed a strategic defense partnership between the countries, initiated last fall by French President Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The first two frigates will be acquired by Greece in 2025 while Greece will take ownership of the third in 2026.

A scaled-down version of the frigates for Greece?

Naval News reports that Greece is planning to build a scaled-down version. This Europeanized iteration of the FFG-62 is expected to feature fewer weapons and a smaller size, outlining a distinct approach to the naval project.

This translates to a frigate with approximately 5,000 tons displacement, a length nearing around 140 meters, equipped with a 76mm or 127mm gun, four 8-cell Mk-41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) for AAW capability, eight SSM, RAM CIWS, torpedo launchers, and a comprehensive sonar suite encompassing Hull-Mounted Sonar (HMS) and Variable Depth Sonar (VDS), Naval News reports, citing an anonymous source.

The Constellation-class multi-mission guided-missile frigates of the US Navy are based on the joint Italian-French FREMM type frigates, which are already in service with the French, Italian, and Egyptian navies.

In 2020, the US Navy announced it had selected a FREMM variant for its new Constellation class of twenty frigates.

Frigate interest follows deal on F-35 sale

Athens’ interest in the co-production of the frigates comes days after the US State Department approved the potential sale of up to forty F-35 fighter jets and respective equipment to Greece in an $8.6 billion deal.

As part of the deal, Greece will also receive significant military aid at no extra cost. This would include C-130 transport aircraft, armored tanks, and vehicles.

“This is the result of a methodical, quiet and long effort, which combined Greece’s consistency as an ally on the international fronts with the promotion of its national interests,” said Mitsotakis. It is “a result which consolidates, at the same time, the dynamic and independent Greek-American strategic relationship.”

On Friday, a day after Ankara fully completed ratification of NATO membership of Sweden, the U.S. State Department sent the notification to advance the sale of forty new F-16 fighter jets and eighty modernization kits to Turkey. This was a request first made in October 2021.

According to Reuters, the simultaneous approval of the requests for the sale of fighter jets to both Greece and Turkey signals that Washington is trying to strike a balance between two alliance members with a history of tense relations.