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Finland Signs Deal to Buy 64 US-Built Stealth Jets

An Italian F35 aircraft is seen on the runway during "Blue Flag", an aerial exercise hosted by Israel with the participation of foreign air force crews, at Ovda military air base, southern Israel November 11, 2019. (Reuters)
An Italian F35 aircraft is seen on the runway during "Blue Flag", an aerial exercise hosted by Israel with the participation of foreign air force crews, at Ovda military air base, southern Israel November 11, 2019. (Reuters)
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Finland Signs Deal to Buy 64 US-Built Stealth Jets

An Italian F35 aircraft is seen on the runway during "Blue Flag", an aerial exercise hosted by Israel with the participation of foreign air force crews, at Ovda military air base, southern Israel November 11, 2019. (Reuters)
An Italian F35 aircraft is seen on the runway during "Blue Flag", an aerial exercise hosted by Israel with the participation of foreign air force crews, at Ovda military air base, southern Israel November 11, 2019. (Reuters)

Finland signed a $9.4 billion agreement on Friday to buy US F-35 fighter jets, reaching a deal to bring 64 radar-evading warplanes to a country bordering Russia at a time of high tensions between Moscow and the West over Russian troops massed near the Ukrainian border.

However it will be some years before the planes enter service. Finland has previously said the planes would begin to be deployed in 2027.

In addition to the planes, the contract with US government and planemaker Lockheed Martin includes maintenance equipment, spare parts and training services, Finnish Defense Forces said in a statement on Friday, adding an agreement to buy air-to-air ammunition would be signed later in 2022.

"The aim is to ensure that Finland's F-35 system has the best possible performance going into the 2030s," the Defense Forces said.

Finland, which was historically neutral during the Cold War, is a member of the EU but not of NATO. In recent years it has strengthened cooperation with the Western military alliance and its defense forces materiel policy is based on all new equipment being NATO-compatible.

Finland's government said the decision to buy the US jets, announced in December, was part of long-term plans to boost the country's defenses, not a response to the current confrontation between the West and Russia over Ukraine.

The Finish defense industry will have a role on the jet Lockheed Martin said, adding that the deal will provide "high technology engineering and manufacturing economic benefits. The production work will continue for more than 20 years, and the F-35 sustainment work will continue into the 2060s."

"It is part of our long-term planning and has nothing to do with the current situation as such," Finland's ambassador to the United States, Mikko Hautala, said in a statement.

Russia has massed more than 100,000 troops near its frontiers with Ukraine, and Western countries fear it is planning an attack. Moscow denies plans for an invasion but says it could take unspecified "military-technical" action unless demands are met, including a promise to admit no new countries to NATO and to withdraw Western forces from Eastern Europe.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said in January the country had no plans at present to apply to join NATO, but added the Nordic nation retains the right to join if it so wishes.

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Greece Fights Dozens of Wildfires in 'Most Difficult Day of Year'

Firefighters arrive to extinguish a wildfire burning in Stamata, near Athens, Greece, June 30, 2024. REUTERS/Elias Marcou
Firefighters arrive to extinguish a wildfire burning in Stamata, near Athens, Greece, June 30, 2024. REUTERS/Elias Marcou
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Greece Fights Dozens of Wildfires in 'Most Difficult Day of Year'

Firefighters arrive to extinguish a wildfire burning in Stamata, near Athens, Greece, June 30, 2024. REUTERS/Elias Marcou
Firefighters arrive to extinguish a wildfire burning in Stamata, near Athens, Greece, June 30, 2024. REUTERS/Elias Marcou

Firefighters were battling a series of wildfires near the Greek capital Athens on Sunday evening, as the country braces for another scorching summer.
Greece faces a tough wildfire season after its warmest winter and earliest heatwave on record, with temperatures hitting 44°C (111°F), said AFP.
"Today in Attica two extremely dangerous fires that broke out in residential areas and spread rapidly due to strong winds in Keratea and Stamata were tackled", Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vasilis Kikilias said late on Sunday.
He said there was no longer an active front in Stamata, north of Athens, though there were some minor reignitions in the eastern area of Keratea.
He said "ground forces will remain in the field throughout the night".
Since Sunday midday, the authorities have called for the evacuation of at least eight areas near the capital, with flames destroying cars and houses.
Ert channel reported that a 45-year-old-man died from a cardiac arrest while trying to flee fires in suburban Athens.
According to the police, the man was found unconscious in the yard of a house in Rodopoli and taken to hospital where he died.
"Today is the hardest that the Fire Brigade has faced in this year's firefighting season," fire department spokesperson Vasilis Vathrakogiannis said on Sunday afternoon, during an emergency press briefing.
"The situation is very difficult, as strong winds continue to blow, they have not subsided and the outbreaks are many," the mayor of Lavreotiki, Dimitris Loukas, told Athens News Agency Sunday afternoon.
However he said a nearby military air base was not currently in danger from the flames.
Fire brigade spokesman noted that wind speeds had exceeded 60 km per hour in Keratea, while in Stamata, the blaze was fanned by strong northerly winds exceeding 70 km an hour.
Island fires
A fire also broke out Sunday in an industrial zone in Ritsona, near the island of Evia.
Black smoke filled the sky above Ritsona after the fire started in a recycling factory, burning various flammable materials that were in the grounds around it, including tyres and mattresses.
Firefighters are fighting to prevent the flames from spreading beyond the recycling plant to other factories in the area.
The fire also approached a refugee center, but the Athens News Agency reported that this was not believed to be in danger.
Separately, a large wildfire broke out on Serifos island on Saturday afternoon, but was also brought under control by firefighters early Sunday.
"All of southwestern Serifos has burned. We are talking about an area where the fire stopped at the sea," Serifos mayor Konstantinos Revintis told MEGA TV.
The fire caused damage to houses, cottages, warehouses and chapels, according to the mayor.
The Fire Danger Forecast Map issued for Sunday by the Civil Protection Ministry predicted a very high category 4 risk of fire for Attica, the Peloponnese, Crete, the North and South Aegean Regions, and central Greece.
A wildfire ignited Saturday afternoon in the area of Mount Parnitha-- known as "the lungs of Athens" -- was controlled Saturday evening with the help of reinforcements from other regions as well as volunteer firefighters.
More than forty wildfires erupted across Saturday in Greece with wind speeds exceeding 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour, according to fire brigade sources.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on Greeks to brace for a difficult wildfire season in his weekly Facebook post on Sunday.
"The difficult times are still ahead of us. Our effort is continuous. In this effort, our allies are new tools that build a new culture of prevention and responsibility," he said.