According to Greek daily Kathimerini, Greece’s Council on Foreign Policy and Defence (KYSEA) unanimously approved the upgrade of 85 F-16 fighter jets by the US. The main obstacle to the deal was disagreements with US aerospace firm Lockheed Martin over the program’s launch date and the tight payment schedule. 

The upgrade will concern 84 Block 52+ and Block 52+Adv aircraft, which will be upgraded to F-16V Block 72 standard with a Northrop Grumman APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) fire control radar, advanced flight computer, glass cockpit and other improvements. As the capabilities of this advanced AESA are derived from Northrop Grumman’s family of 5th generation fighter AESA radars, the F-22’s APG-77 and F-35’s APG-81, the deal is expected to give 84 of Greece’s fleet of F-16s capabilities similar to the much more advanced F-35 fighters minus stealth technology. The remaining 65 Greek F-16s will not be upgraded. 

The upgrade work will be carried out in Greece by Hellenic Aerospace Industries, and the upgraded plane could be delivered as early as 2020. According to Greek local media,  payment will be spread out until 2027 or 2028 and the total price tag will probably not exceed $1.45 billion. In a congressional notification filed Oct, 2017, the US Defence Security Cooperation Agency estimated the cost of the upgrade at $2.404 billion, but it is not cleared which original options Greece has dropped.