Cash-strapped Greece is considering a free offer of hundreds of redundant M1A1 Abrams tanks extended by the US government, the Greek army said on Wednesday.
This is a free offer, army spokesman Yiannis Sifakis told AFP.
A delegation of officers has travelled to the United States to examine tanks in storage; we are departing on the premise of picking 400 of them, he said.
The only cost will be that of transport, which is estimated in the region of eight million euros ($11 million), the spokesman added.
Ta Nea daily reported that the tanks, stored in Nevada, saw action in the 1990-1991 Gulf War and were first offered by the US government a year ago.
The state council on foreign policy and defence will have the final say on whether the offer is taken up, Sifakis said.
Greece is in the grip of a debt crisis that has forced the government to freeze procurement orders for tanks, frigates and fighter jets.
The country has traditionally been one of the worlds heaviest defence spenders per capita owing to decades of rivalry with neighbouring Turkey.
Greece has in the past bought tanks from Germany and there have been reports that Berlin has recently tried to sell updated versions of its Leopard model.
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#2
sorry Yippy, once they have 'em we can't control where they use 'em
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2011 15:11 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Yeah, I'll bet Uncle Sam will also pay the shipping for these 'free' tanks.
Seems to me the American taxpayers that own these should give them to the Border Patrol. Not really mobile, but a hell of a center piece for an outpost.
#4
Ok, this may seem sort of dumb, but we bought 10,000 of these M1 tanks. We need like 1,000 now. That leaves 9,000 turbine powered, depleted uranium land yachts to care and feed. THAT WE DO NOT NEED TO DEFEND AMERICA. They cost us money every day. Greece is a good NATO ally. Let's just agree to help them out.
Frankly, if they petitioned to be a new state, I would advocate bringing them aboard the American enterprise, debts be damned.
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