S-300PMU SA-10 GRUMBLE
Since the 1990s, the Greek army has been armed with Russian air defense systems S-300 and air defense systems ??r-?1. Also Osa-AKM air defense systems, Kornet anti-tank missile systems, Zubr air-cushioned landing craft, infantry fighting vehicles. The 5P85? launchers of the S-300PMU1 SAM were installed on the KrAZ-260 chassis.
As Russia's military deteriorated, the arms export activities of its defense industries continued to grow. At the end of 1996, defense authorities announced that foreign arms sales would playa prominent role in financing military reform in coming years. In early 1997, Russia angered the West by selling S-300PMU-1 (NATO codename SA-10 "Grumble") missile systems to the Republic of Cyprus. In 1997, at the prospect of buying S-300s from Cyprus, Ankara had even threatened a pre-emptive strike, and so after long diplomatic processes, and under pressure from NATO, the missiles were granted to Greece in 1998, which he offered some exchanges in Cyprus, and they settled in Crete.
A multi-million dollar contract was concluded in Nicosia 04 Janaury 1997 for the purchase by Cyprus of surface-to-air missiles from Russia. A meeting between Cypriot government Ministers and representatives of the Russian state-controlled Rosvoorouzhenie company was held at the Ministry of Defence in Nicosia. The meeting was attended by the Cypriot Ministers of Defence and Finance, Costas Eliades and Christodoulos Christodoulou. The meeting was also attended by the new Russian Ambassador to Cyprus Georgi Muratov.
The planned acquisition from Russia of the S-300 system, with a 90 mile range, was the first step by the Cypriot government towards building a credible air defense system. Diplomats said the missiles would neutralize the air superiority Turkey has had here since 1974, when its troops invaded the northern third of the island in response to a short-lived coup engineered by the military then ruling Greece.
Following this announcement Turkey reacted by threatening to destroy the missiles if the Greek-Cypriots decided to deploy the system on the island. An action that would oblige Greece to come to Cyprus' defense, risking an escalation to a general Greek-Turkish war. The situation was complicated further when Turkey declared that it would attack ships carrying the missile components to the island. This caused the Russian reaction and their direct involvement in the crisis.
In the following months, both the United States and major European countries opposed Cyprus decision to acquire the missiles and pressured its government for postponement or cancellation. Various proposals for demilitarization of the island in exchange for the abandonment of the missiles acquisition (the U.S also favored a moratorium for a no-fly zone over Cyprus as the first step towards demilitarization) were rejected from the Turkish side. The missile issue had become a war of nerves, in which a decision by either side to call the other side's "bluff' might have risked war.
After a two-year commitment1 12 by Cyprus, supported by Greece, to deploy the Russian S-300 surface to air missiles on Cypriot soil within 1998, Athens and Lefkosia decided to redirect the missile deployment to the Greek island of Crete. The principal reason that Cyprus and Greece withdrew from their position on the missiles issue was that their deployment threatened their European policy for Cyprus' accession to the union. In addition, the United States as well as the large powers of the EU (contrary to the unions' more pro-Greek position in Imia/Kardak case) opposed the S-300 missile deployment as "destabilizing", and as providing a highly undesirable opening for Russia's involvement in the Cyprus problem.
Given the determination of Athens and Lefkosia to push for Cypriot inclusion in the first forthcoming round of EU expansion, Ankara was able to call their "bluff" on the missile issue to cause a major military incident that would have carried a high risk of generalized warfare. Wavering between a conflict - an outcome that would have derailed Cyprus progress towards EU accession - and the weakening of their extended deterrence credibility, the two countries tilted towards the second option by deploying the missiles to Crete.
In September 2022, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the country would not provide Ukraine with S-300 surface-to-air missiles because such support for the war-torn country "should not come at the expence of weakening Greece's defence system." Justifying the Greek military involvement, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated that " Greece has chosen to be on the right side of history" , which is the side of the winners. Risky prediction, since the epilogue to the multi-layered Russian-Ukrainian crisis has not yet been written, so it is not yet entirely clear, which is the right side of the story or what will be the cost (if any) of the choice.
The United States asked Greece to abandon Russian S-300 and ??r-?1 anti-aircraft missile systems, in order to then transfer them to Ukraine. US pressure was exerted on Greece to hand over to Ukraine the Russian S-300 anti-aircraft systems that are in Crete and the TOR-M1s that are in the Aegean islands and in Cyprus. The American proposal is to replace the Russian S-300 PMU1 air defense systems with an equivalent number of American PATRIOT PAC-III systems.
Nikos Dendias, who in mid-October 2022 visited Ukraine, after his meeting with his counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, the latter raised the issue of "strengthening the Ukrainian air defense". The foreign minister at the time avoided speaking directly on the issue, saying he would prefer not to speak publicly "about exchanges of military equipment, but I have privately briefed my colleague on the situation, on direct instructions from my prime minister."
Greece was ready to transfer S-300 air defense systems to Ukraine if the United States replaced them with Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems. This is reported 16 December 2022 by the Greek publication pronews.gr. At a Christmas meeting at the Greek Ministry of Defense, the head of the department, Nikos Panayiotopoulos, said that the country is ready to give up the systems installed in Crete, if the Patriot is placed there instead.
"If the US installs the Patriot system on the island, after its integration into the air defense system, the S-300s may be decommissioned. The same process applies to any other air defense system of Russian origin that can be sent to Ukraine," Panayiotopoulos said. The publication notes that the government is ready to send to Ukraine not only the S-300, but also the Tor-M1 and Osa anti-aircraft missile systems.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia resorted to threats to Greece after its authorities expressed their readiness to hand over S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems to Ukraine if American Patriot systems are placed on Crete. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated 19 December 2022 that plans to hand over to Kyiv S-300 and other air defence equipment are provocative and "openly hostile" to Russia. Her statement adheres to the traditional propaganda line of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, which contains baseless accusations against Kyiv.
"Official Athens does not care that by handing over weapons into the war zone, they become direct accomplices of Ukrainian neo-Nazis who are waging a criminal war against the peaceful civilian population of Donbas, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson Oblasts, in particular the numerous ethnic Greeks who live there," Zakharova said. According to the spokeswoman, the potential transfer of S300 systems to Ukraine will be a "gross violation" of Russian-Greek intergovernmental agreements on military-technical cooperation and "will inevitably have consequences." Zakharova said "It is not too late to abandon dangerous plans. We once again warn the Greek leadership about their responsibility".
Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, stated 28 December 2022 that Greece has assured Russia that it "remembers its obligation not to transfer the S-300 missiles to other countries," recalling the events of 1997-1998, when the missile system was installed in Crete. Lavrov, speaking to the Channel One television network, reminded that Greece has undertaken the obligation not to transfer the missile system to another country and emphasized that Russia "carefully monitors compliance with these obligations."
As he said, "recently there was information that Greece intends to transfer the S-300 to Ukraine. We gave instructions to our ambassador, who addressed the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Greek Ministry of Defense and reminded that these systems were transferred to Greece." He recalled that the S-300s were initially "supposed to be delivered to Cyprus", but there was a reaction from the West, "which did everything to prevent it".
"Given the insular position of Cyprus and the fact that it was not a member of NATO, a compromise was reached that served everyone: Greece bought these systems, but under the contract by which it secured this agreement, Greece does not have the right to transfer them to anyone without our consent," the Russian foreign minister added. And as he pointed out that in Greece "they said they remember this".
The Russian foreign minister said that Russia is "carefully monitoring the observance of the agreements. Especially the condition on the ban on the transfer of our weapons to anyone concerns most of the weapons located in Eastern Europe, where they are produced under licenses in the countries of the former Warsaw Pact."
On 22 January 2023 Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed Greece’s clear refusal to the possibility of sending Russian-made S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems to Ukraine during a dinner in honor of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Athens. Athens emphasized that it would be impossible for Greece to permit the development of a defense system gap without making prompt replacement arrangements.
Aside from its political connotations, the S-300 issue would complicate matters by, for example, triggering the clause that links all weapons systems with an end user license agreement, which might have extremely detrimental effects. Whatever the case, Athens wants to work with the US to decommission Russian weaponry. Also, both sides are preparing for a program to widely replace Russian weapons with US weapons.
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