Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, Robert Menendez, gave his approval for the sale of F-35s to Greece, as he announced from the Delphi Economic Forum in Washington.

The committee’s Republican Vice Chairman, Jim Reese, as well as the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the corresponding House committee (Michael McCall, Gregory Meeks), must also agree, based on the procedure.

When this approval is secured, which is estimated to be a matter of time, then the US government will officially notify Congress of the sale of F-35s to Greece and the prescribed procedure for the ratification of the defence contract will then be followed.

It is recalled that within February or March, the Greek government and the Ministry of National Defence will receive the official response from the US government regarding the cost of the program, so that the so-called LoA (Letter of Acceptance) can then be concluded in a second year following the initial Letter of Request (LoR) sent.

In his recent visit to our country, the Executive Vice President of Lockheed Martin, which manufactures the F-35, was particularly revealing about the planes that our country is going to receive.

In his interview with SKAI, Mr. Greg Ulmer stated that the Greek F-35s will be equipped with the most modern electronic warfare systems. It will be the most modern version of the plane, the TR-3 with Block 4 software.

At the conference, the issues of Southeast Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean were discussed in Washington. In addition to Robert Menendez, California Vice Governor Eleni Kounalaki, Congressmen Gus Bilirakis, Chris Pappas, Nicole Malliotaki, and John Sarbanis and the Hellenic American Leadership Council also attended the conference.

Members of the academic and diplomatic community analyzed the geopolitical status quo as well as the evolution of relations between the US and the Southeast European and Eastern Mediterranean region.

Particular emphasis was placed on the role played by the Eastern Mediterranean in Europe’s energy autonomy, on the importance of the East Med Gas Forum, on cooperation schemes in the light of addressing the climate crisis and energy poverty as well as the challenges created by the behavior of Turkey for NATO and the West in general.

Also read: Turkey | US asks for rent over F-35s