Greece Defense Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos stoke a deal with his American counterpart, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta: USA will grant to Greece 400 used Abrams M1A1 tanks and tracked vehicles including 700 personnel carrier type M113. The army material will come from the stocks of the U.S. Army and it will be donated to Greece in the context of US Army reorganization.
Daily Proto Thema noted that this grant is politically and diplomatically understood as compensatory benefits to Greece for the assistance offered by the debt-ridden country in the case of Libya and the protection of sea routes and international navigation from the dangers of Somali pirates.
Daily Kathimerini quoted Avramopoulos’ aides saying that the obstacles concerning the transport of the tanks has been solved, private donors will come up for the costs so that the Greek budget won’t be burdened.
PS It’s so good to have such friends and donors 🙂
Don’t make me laugh…with local police stations displaying notices that they don’t have the petrol to go out to incidents and demands for 100 euros to cover costs for them to investigate anything? Where is Greece going to get the money for the fuel for the tanks and what the hell are they going to do with them??????
These tanks are probably for their next Middle Eastern aggression in Syria or Lebanon.
And they will roll from Greece through Turkey or underwater?
You have to admire the Greeks, it’s a country with it’s priorities right. Nice place to visit, wouldn’t want to live there.
What about the spares , maintenance and training – how will Greece be able to keep these tanks mobilised?
hm… find sponsors?
Dear Pantelis
The package includes a number of M1A1 tanks to be used as sources for spare parts. Furthermore,it includes a number of tank simulators (drive&targetting), fuel trucks, repair/tool vehicles, tank recovery
vehicles, a number of M1 tanks with 105 mm guns to be used for crew training and 3,000 120mm HEAT type tank shells.
Kudos, way to go, Bravo to the officers and the civilian personnel who worked hard and made it happen.
thanks for the details info, Nicholas
wh does greece need an army if the people are going to starve!!! this country is bankrupt and last thing they need is toys! since the EU is giving so much money to save greece cant they also protect it incase of an enemy attack? whats the point of the billions lend and loose the country to turkey lets say? so why doesn’t greece just dissolve the army sell all the weapons and use the cash to pay part of the debt , and in a worse case scenario of an attack in greece , the other EU countries intervene !
the usa is ‘very generously’ giving old hardware that it would have scrapped anywhere. EU has never stood with Greece against any turkish agression. Remember Imia? Constant transgression of sea and airspace? and demands of Greek waters and islands? Get serious!
Dear unhappygreek
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You must be out of your mind, what planet have you been living on? Please name a sovereign country which has disbanded it’s armed forces, sold it’s weapons systems to pay a portion of it’s national debt and presently relies on other nations to safeguard it’s territorial integrity and independence against foreign aggressors.
Argentina has done something like you say. It has demilitiarised itself in the face of dire economic circumstances and now retains only tiny, token naval, army and air forces.
Argentina doesn’t get on all that well with its neighbours, either but it seems to be working for them. I see no reason why Greece shouldn’t follow their example, but then I am not at all expert in this field….
Costa Rica in 1948.
Armor to be used against Greek citizens. ?i I’m ashamed to be American at times. panetta is an ass.
who sai d so? there is no money even for tanks fuel .
This is really kind of the Americans. This way if the elections do not turn out right and they need to bring back the colonels they will have fresh new toys.
With friends like that, who needs enemies…
Answer to all :
Greece has some modern tanks but has many old M-48 tanks, 60 years old, and Leopard 1, 40 years old.
It is normal to replace them.
exactly. why wouldn’t the get rid of the 400 pattons that have been around for almost as long as ww2 tanks and replace them with 400 Abrams for free?