The Hellenic Air Force’s F-16 upgrade program is in peril due to Greek HAI company’s management problems and a lack of staff.
The troubles at the Hellenic Aerospace Industry (Greek-EAB) are bad enough that it’s not ready to participate unless they are resolved fast, with likely delays in delivering part so the Greek firm can implement its orders.
The Development Ministry, under Adonis Georgiadis, reportedly said the difficulties will be fixed by the end of the year. The deal was made to include EAB as a subcontractor.Otherwise, Lockheed Martin will stop considering ΕΑΒ a “sole source” and launch a bid for the parts of the global F-16 production manufactured in Greece, effectively leaving it out of the co-production chain, turning instead to countries such as Bahrain, Morocco, Taiwan, Slovakia and Bulgaria, the paper said.
Besides losing face and credibility, EAB will lose out on a valuable part of the contract as 80 percent of the projects under way involve a Lockheed Martin project (F-16 and C-130-J co-productions, upgrades to P-3B naval cooperation aircraft, 84 F-16 upgrades to Vipers.)
Also at risk is the upgrade of the Hellenic Air Force’s 84 F-16s to next-generation F-16 Vipers may be in jeopardy within 2021. The contract also involves C-130 transport planes that EAB could lose out on.