13 Jul 2010
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Apparently Greek Navy is retiring its hovercrafts faster that anticipated. It was reported earlier that Greek Navy was having difficulties in keeping the hovercrafts operational and that they were going to be decommissioned.
According to Jane’s Defence Weekly, Greek Navy has already decommissioned two of them already.
Photo from Wikipedia.
10 Jul 2010
>According to Strategy Page website Greek Navy is going to retire the four Zubr class hovercrafts it had acquired from Russia and Ukraine.
According to Strategy Page website Greek Navy is going to retire the four Zubr class hovercrafts it had acquired from Russia and Ukraine. Three of them joined the Greek Navy in 2001 and the last one in 2005. They have a displacement of 550 tons and can carry up to 130 tons military material: 3 main battle tanks or 10 armored personnel carriers or 230 troops. The boats were ideal tools for quick reinforcement of island garrisons. Alternative they could be used to carry special forces team to infiltrate the enemy or a small raiding party with their light armored vehicles. .
Many governments cannot overcome the temptation of buying Russian military hardware as it is relatively cheep to buy. But the current manufacturing and logistics infrastructure of Russia and other GIS countries is no where close the system in the Soviet era. Therefore properly maintaining Russian hardware turns to be a nightmare. Turkey had a very similar and dissatisfying experience with in Mil-17 helicopters bought for the Gendarmerie in late 1990’s.
It is interesting to note that China has decided to buy a dozen of these crafts for its navy. Apparently they are not afraid about any possible supply problems or planning to reveres engineering the parts anyway.
In light of the current economic problems Greece is facing retiring these white elephants are not a bad move after all.
14 Dec 2013 2 Comments
Last week Russia and Greece signed an intergovernmental agreement on military cooperation, during the visit of Russian Defense minister Sergei Shoigu to Athens.
It is worth of mentioning that this visit was conducted just before Athens will take the Presidency of EU for the next 6 months staring in 1.1.2014. Greece is NATO’s only member country to pursue fruitful military technological cooperation with Russia.
“We signed an agreement that opens new frameworks and new boundaries for our further work in the sphere of military-technical cooperation,” Sergei Shoigu told journalists after talks with his Greek counterpart Dimitrios Avramopoulos in Athens.
The deal concerns armaments supplied previously as well as military hardware, maintenance and new hardware supplies, Shoigu said.
A Russian deputy defense minister, Anatoly Antonov, said after the talks that Shoigu had proposed that Avramopoulos consider working out an agreement to streamline the procedure for Russian navy vessels calling at Greek ports.
Antonov said the two defense ministers had also discussed the possibility of holding personnel training events and exchanging experience in the fight against terrorism and piracy, as well as other areas of cooperation.
This new agreement will make it easier for Russian ships to dock at Greek port during their deployment in the Mediterranean thus making Greece a reliable alternative to the Syrian port Tartus.
According to Greek blog SManalysis, Russia will help Greek Navy to support the Zubr class hovercraft. Greek Navy has procured 4 of these air-cushioned landing craft. Three of them joined the Greek Navy in 2001 and the last one in 2005. They have a displacement of 550 tons and can carry up to 130 tons military material: 3 main battle tanks or 10 armored personnel carriers or 230 troops.
One of them was decommissioned in 2010 and the operational status of the remainder was dubious.
turkishnavy.net 