Not for Ukraine: it became known why the US wanted to buy used F-16s in Greece

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The US Navy intended to buy used Greek F-16 fighter jets, which could play the role of the "aggressor" in the US military exercises.

After the decision was made to accelerate the retirement of the aging F/A-18 aircraft, the US Navy was faced with a situation where to replace the 48 retired F/A-18A/B/C/D Hornet aircraft, the service had only 12 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, and one of the optimal solutions in this case was to look for used F-16s, since new fighters are too expensive and too time-consuming, according to alert5.

"Faced with procurement challenges in Greece, we took advantage of the US Air Force's plan to retire more than 30 F-16s with 2000 to 3000 hours remaining," said Traver Fordham, executive director of the US Navy Reserve Fighter Squadron, noting that 12 aircraft are dedicated directly to their needs.

The transition from F-18 to F-16 is not without logistical and operational needs, including pilot retraining, purchasing new simulators, etc.

"Here, of course, one could consider a fantastic scenario, when the USA, under the guise of officially purchasing Greek F-16s for its reserve, would actually buy back these planes for Ukraine - but, again, it is unlikely that Greece would take such a step, because in the end, the appearance of "additional" 32 planes in Ukraine would not have gone unnoticed and would have surfaced anyway. It is quite likely that in the process of purchasing used F-16s, the parties simply could not agree on the terms of such an agreement," Defense Express adds.

The US wanted to buy F-16s from Greece - what is known

It was previously reported that Greece is going to decommission 32 old F-16 Block-30 fighters. The country wanted to sell them to the United States of America, so that "the planes would be modernized and transferred to Ukraine." It was noted that Greece plans to upgrade 82 F-16 fighters to Block-70 and purchase 24 fourth-generation Rafale fighters from France. A committee of the US Congress also authorized Greece to purchase up to 40 fifth-generation F-35 multirole fighters.