>The end of the odyssey of Papanikolis?

>According to Greek newspaper Kathimeiri the defense minister of the newly elected Greek government have met with the CEO of TMKS. The agenda of the meeting was of course the ongoing tug of war between the two parties on Neptune II and Archimedes programmes.

The news paper says that Venizelos and Atzpodien have reached an agreement on the first submarine. An unidentified third country is reported to be interested in buying the vessel and the two sides have agreed that selling it would be the best way out of the current impasse.

The two men reportedly agreed that if the technical problems are ironed out, Greece will accept delivery of the remaining three submarines.

The Greek goverment did not had any options. As predicted, the new goverment choose to find a way to settle with TKMS. The other option was to have its submarine force decay while the government and TKMS searched a solution in ICC.

The fate of the TKMS owned Skaramanga shipyard may be different however. If the ongoing rumors are to be believed TKMS wants to sell the shipyard before the end of this year. The arch rival of TKMS, DCNS offered 3 FREMM Class frigates to Greek Navy. Greece wants these ships to be build at home. And Skaramanga shipyard is the only one in the country that has an existing infrastructure to build these ships.
If TKMS gives up its shares in Skaramanga then this could open the way for the FREEM’s.