Today, Friday 2 June 2021, the Minister of National Defence Mr. Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos answered to a topical question posed by PM of West Attica B’ region Mr. Giorgos Tsipras on “What are the criteria of the government for the purchase of the new frigates? Has the government changed our defense strategy as far as its ability to defend our sovereign rights in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean is concerned?

In his speech the Minister stated the following:

“Dear colleagues,

The first thing I have to say is that I am happy you are so concerned about the speedy and swift conclusion of the necessary and great Armament Programs of the Armed Forces. Unfortunately, this concerned of yours wasn’t so evident when you were the decision-making government. Even in the case you had to make a decision you proved to be so slow in its implementation, and I allude to the upgrade program of the eighty-four F-16s to their Viper version. You didn’t do squat.

Now things are happening. We need to move fast to make up for the time lost. As far as the great program of the procurement of the new frigates, as well as the modernization of the average span life of the four MEKO type frigates, as well as the acquisition of two vessels deemed by the Hellenic Navy as an interim solution until our new vessels are developed, absolutely constitutes the greatest Armament Program for the Armed Forces in the last decades, as far as its cost is concerned and its impact on the future of the Armed Forces and the Hellenic Navy. Hence, whichever decision we make needs to be careful, following a thorough examination of all proposals.

There many articles on this in the press. Some have even become “frigate-experts”, as some have become “Covid-19” experts etc. Many of these articles are here to merely stir up things. I would advise you not to pay attention to any of these, but only to the official announcements of the Ministry of National Defence and the General Staffs to shape an opinion.

Additionally, I cannot accept the fact that throughout this course of the great armaments over the past two years, the provided-for parliamentary procedures for all Armed Forces Procurements and Armament Programs haven’t been followed. The Corps has been thoroughly informed through long consultations, and all competent Committees of the Hellenic Parliament had been fully informed and had shaped their own opinion.

Extremely urgent and secret: in this case it is extremely urgent because we had zero armament activities over the last years for various reasons. Because of this, combined with the problems caused by the Supply Chain of the Armed Forces, extensive and analytical briefings took place, when this was allowed by the principle of confidentiality and Military ethics . Always respecting the conditions imposed by the safeguarding of the secret status. All colleagues of all parties respected this – bravo to you to too – however, there was no gap in keeping anyone posted.

As far as this program is concerned, the selection will be based upon the Operational and Technical requirements of the Hellenic Navy, as well as the operational lessons learnt from the recent crises of the 2020 summer and autumn. To say it clearly without any misconceptions: We shall purchase the vessels we want based upon the guidance, the proposals and the requirements of the Hellenic Navy. The Hellenic Navy will demonstrate which are the best vessels which cover our needs, and it will be a decision without any strings attached, without any commitments or any other calculations. The needs of the Armed Forces and the Hellenic Navy will prevail.

Furthermore, we have certainly expressed out desire for the involvement of the domestic Defence Industry, and not only the Shipbuilding Industry. I have said this openly, we want the domestic industry involved in the shipbuilding of these three frigates in our shipyards. The first one will be built by whichever company abroad/contractor will assume the whole project.

So, what does this mean for our own shipyards? It means that they should be in the position to execute this program within a reasonable amount of time, because speed matters. That said, our aspiration is to engage the Shipbuilding and the Defence Industry because it is not just the shipbuilding part. We have interconnected through the competent services the candidate contractors with the domestic Defence Industry companies. Many investigatory contacts have already been made, to see the extent to which the National Defence Industry can get involved. This is our immediate priority.

You know well that the Shipyards case isn’t an easy one. It has become a riddle for some decades now. The future of both depends perhaps on an investing initiative which will literally change their future to the best. We estimate that some steps have been taken towards this direction. It is not our job to guide the investors.

In the “Skaramangas Shipyards” there is a Tender under way, as you already know, and in the “Elefsis Shipyards” occasionally we have had a few cases of interest demonstration. I hope that soon we will be able to be sure about this. It is not within our competence but as you realise the MoD is directly involved because we want the vessels to be built with the know-how which will come from the companies abroad to the Greek shipyards, based on the capabilities and the skills of our personnel.

Finally, the Hellenic Navy is still examining the proposals and the solutions available. As I have said before, this is a tough, complex and complicated decision. “Packaging” isn’t absolute. We are examining the flexibility capability as far as the modernization program management is concerned which will amount to 450 million Euro, following the readjustment of the givens, as proposed by the Hellenic Navy and HNDGS. We believe that the previous budget of 160 million Euro didn’t fully cover the modernisation of the medium life span of the four MEKO. It took more planning to render the modernisation real and according to the new requirements.

All proposals have not been submitted yet, especially for the so-called “Interim Solution”, so there are a few I would say imperfections in the files. Right now the evaluation procedure is moving fast. Recently we have presented to the Prime Minister the operational evaluation of the current givens and proposals, on the basis , I repeat, of the Operational and Technical givens we have on our hands (of the Hellenic Navy). The proposal which was accepted was to further examine the capabilities for the procurement of the new frigates from six countries, namely in alphabetical order to avoid any misunderstandings, from France, Germany, Holland, Italy, United Kingdom and the USA.

The proposals that were rejected were the Spanish one and one of the two German ones for technical reasons. The vessels were too expensive for our capabilities, since they met the operational adequacy (they all do), and secondly, they were much bigger than what the Hellenic Navy needs. So, the selection procedure is fully under way, it is in its final phase, I reckon by the end of the summer we will have the results and of course the competent Parliament Committees will be informed on the outcome.

As Government we remain focused on the expressed national strategy of defending the vital interests of the Homeland in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, we remain focused on sight.

Four frigates, another four modernized and two interim solutions amount to ten vessels. This is truly the core of the Hellenic Navy, its future. As you realise it has to do with the presence of the country in the Eastern Mediterranean theatre, not only in the Aegean. Hence, from a geopolitical point of view we stick to our decisions.

Thank you”.

Mr. Panagiotopoulos also stressed:

“I have made it clear that it is the Hellenic Navy that will make the proposals, not the Minister himself, or any other Minister. The Hellenic Navy evaluates all the vessels. This is the guidelines the MoD has received from the Prime Minister, with a view to thoroughly examine in details, and this is a hard one, because all proposals are quite competitive and day to day they become even more attractive. These are the good aspects of competition and the best proposal will prevail.

As far as the needs of the Hellenic Navy are concerned, I repeat that the platform, which is the vessel, the weapons, the electronic systems etc., we need time, because it is a complex decision and its complexity stretches far beyond the parameter of the involvement of our shipbuilding industry. I repeat that – this is our view- the domestic defence and shipbuilding industry need to be involved in this program. It is nothing like the 18 “Rafale” aircraft procurement program when we had the manufacturer and procedures were swift. This was quite positive because we covered the requirements of the Air Force and potentially we changed the conditions of air excellence in the Aegean, given that these aircraft were delivered soon enough with their weapon systems and their Follow On Support as signed Contracts.

The vessels are a different case. You build something from scratch. Hence, since we have this element, it is important to have the involvement of the domestic Industry. This is our aspiration. It is a riddle because we need to solve the shipbuilding industry problems in the same place we will make our decision. As I said before, this is not the job of the MoD, however, this is our aspiration.

I reckon we need to hurry up to make up for the time lost and rearm the Armed Forces, even if we didn’t have the tensions with Turkey. I keep reminding my foreign colleagues especially that we need to move on with this program to replace our aging vessels, the frigates, with four new ones because there is no other way around it when we have 40 year-old plus vessels. Consequently, this decision is a complex and tough one, that needs to be taken correctly to cover the needs of the Hellenic Navy.

Concluding, all will be decided by the Hellenic Parliament. We have provided explanations for everything, and we will keep you posted on the progress of this issue. Right now we have rejected from a variety of about eight candidates two to three ones, the rest will go to the next round. We haven’t decided yet on the contractor, at least we have a limited range of candidates, one of whom will be the final one.

As I said before the final decision will be based on the requirements as they are defined by the Hellenic Navy according to the plan drafted, coordinated and composed by HNDGS, submitted to the Political Leadership and the Prime Minister for approval.

This is the holistic upgrade and rearm plan of the Armed Forces. It concerns the procurement of new assets, the maintenance and support of the existing ones, and I think this is the only way to reinforce the Armed Forces and their deterrence in theatre- the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean – as far as the successful defending and safeguarding of our national sovereign rights is concerned.

This is the way the decision will be taken, you will remain posted on all progress made by the end of the summer, this is my estimation.

Thank you”.