US offers Greece frigate deal in competition with France

The US State Department announced the approval of the potential sale of naval frigates to Athens to challenge a deal announced between France and Greece in September.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said on Friday it had approved the sale for $6.9 billion of four Lockheed Martin combat frigates, known as multi-mission surface combatant ships, just 10 weeks after Athens signed a memorandum of understanding with Paris on a similar deal for French-built ships.

Additionally, the frigate agency also notified Congress of the approval of a sale of MEKO Class Frigate Modernization and related equipment for an estimated cost of $2.5 billion.

The modernisation request came from Athens for their four existing MEKO class frigates, the agency noted.

READ MORE: What NATO? Greece ratifies controversial defence deal with France

Washington-Paris arm wrestle 

The announcement suggested that France faces a fresh commercial arms deal threat after the United States wrested away a massive submarine contract for Australia in a shock announcement on September 15 that ruptured relations between Washington and Paris.

France recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia and labelled it a "stab in the back" by an ally when Canberra ditched a longstanding deal worth billions of euros to buy conventional French submarines for US nuclear-powered vessels.

Two weeks after that, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis set a memorandum of understanding with President Emmanuel Macron for France to buy three and possibly four French Belharra frigates for three billion euros ($3.5 billion).

The French ships would be built by the Naval Group for delivery beginning in 2024.

In the France-Greece deal, the two sides had until the end of this year to reach a final agreement.

READ MORE: AUKUS pact: France needs to accept new reality if it wants to compete