The first six Rafale fighter jets that Greece purchased landed at Tanagra Airbase after departing at 09:25 local time (Greek time 10:25) from Istria in France and made an impressive flight over the Acropolis less than two hours later.
"Welcome to your home, good landings always safely," the head of the control tower at the Tanagra Air Base told the Greek pilots of the six Rafale.
Before landing on the runway of the 114th Battle Wing, the first Greek pilots trained to fly the state-of-the-art French fighter jets crossed the Tanagra base with twin-engine fighter jets.
Moving their wings left and right, the Greek pilots greeted the attendees.
A few seconds earlier, in their first crossing over the Tanagra runway, Rafale pilots simulated touch and go, that is, shortly before touching the runway, they took off again and made another turn towards the 114th Battle Wing.
In total, Greece will procure 24 Rafale fighter jets, at a total cost of 3.3 billion euros.
The additional contract for the purchase of an additional six new Rafale fighter jets is expected to be signed in the coming weeks, according to Proto Thema.
Two of the six Rafale that arrived in Greece today are the two-seater. These will be used for the training of young pilots, while the other four are single-seater.
The training of eight Greek pilots and 50 aircraft technicians has already been completed, which took place in France.
The Rafale fighters have a range of 2,800 miles and a large fuel capacity, two engines, are equipped with modern and powerful electronic scanning radar and are capable of carrying two Exocet missiles.
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