User:Kopechli/sandbox

= Hellenic army equipment = Αlthough Greece has the potential to design and manufacture military systems, chooses to import battle proven military systems, because Greece does not have the economic capability needed for this task. As resources cannot be diverted because they are dedicated to a disproportionately large standing military, relatively to Greek economy and population. Most people and governments criticize this tactic by Greece but they tend to forget that Greece is on the front of NATO's southern flank, in a crossroad of 3 continents and in constant conflict with the neighboring Turkey despite the two countries being in the same alliance. Greece is the EU member state most exposed to negative developments in the geographical region of Southern Europe and the economic crisis only exaggerated the severity of the situation. Αlthough Greece maintains defense expenditure as a share of GDP above the 2% NATO guideline, the reality is that equipment expenditure as a share of defense expenditure is below the NATO guideline of 20%. The Greek army left to rot for 15 years with no updates and in most cases not even maintenance and support. Thus a situation has created in which the Greek army is constantly falling behind in respect of quality of armament compared to air force and navy. Most of the the Hellenic army equipment is of second hand with main suppliers being US and Germany. Τhe Hellenic army totals 88.850 active personnel with 8.000 civilian staff. Additionally Greece is a signatory nation of the treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) with restrictions on the quantities of defense systems it can maintain. According to the conventional armed forces in europe treaty (CFE) as provided in the adapted CFE Treaty. The following are the national ceilings for Greece.

NATIONAL CEILINGS SPECIFIED IN THE ADAPTED CFE TREATY FOR GREECE
In context of CFE the term armored combat vehicle (ACV) means a self-propelled vehicle with armored protection and cross-country capability. That includes armored personnel carriers (APCs), armored infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) and heavy armament combat vehicles (HACVs). In the Article II paragraph (F) the treaty specified that any future large caliber direct fire system which has a secondary effective indirect fire capability shall be counted against the artillery ceilings. This last fact covers mortar carriers so that they be counted against the artillery ceilings, as there is no provision of indirect fire capability on armored fighting vehicles in the CFE treaty. An exception on this rule are carriers that have mortars, artillery and rocket launchers below 100mm caliber so that a M106 carrier with M29A1 mortars is counted as ACV, but a M106 carrier with M30 or Soltam K6 mortar is counted as artillery.

Main battle tanks
Greek CFE treaty limit: 1,735 tanks to correct 1343 In the context of upgrading the main battle tanks and the integration of self-protection systems in them. Greece is in preliminary contacts with the companies involved.

Artillery
Greek CFE treaty limit: 1,920 (calibers > 100 mm)

Armored fighting vehicles/carriers
Greek CFE treaty limit of 2,498( IFVs / APCs).

There have been rumors about a potential M2 Bradley purchase from the US Army's stock, because US in 2018 has authorized 367 M2A0 Bradley IFVs to Greece through EDA program. The problem is that these vehicles are older basic version of the M2 that later named M2A0. The cost for the reconstruction and modernization of these vehicles will reach or even exceed 2 to 3 million dollars each and close to 1 billion dollars for all 367 vehicles. Meaning that if you had the money in the first place, you would buy new IFVs with that money. On the other hand a program is being implemented on M113 vehicles, with additional installation of external metal shields for comprehensive protection. Greece is also taking part in the European research sub-program entitled “Nano-modified Composite Materials & Processes for Armor Reinforcing ", which concerns the use of nanotechnology material for the upgrade of ballistic passive protection of armored vehicles. Additionally minister of defense said that Greece is constantly searching for solutions in replacement of all IFVs and APCs, of the Greek army, by respectively modern state of the art type of high specifications.

Engineering vehicles
Greece has in total 202 Leopard-1V and 110 Leopard-1A3, that have been retired from active duty as main battle tanks and they have been modified and are in use as engineering vehicles. In order to not count these vehicles on the limits of the CFE Treaty, the 105 mm guns have been removed.