ROME — A senior L3Harris executive has said that Greece will soon decide on a new electronic warfare (EW) suite to equip a fleet of upgraded F-16 fourth-generation fighter jets.
Athens requested “pricing” from industry related to the acquisition around 18 months ago, but “we think that decision [product selection] will come fairly quickly,” David Nyikos, director of international EW programs for airborne combat systems at L3Harris, told Breaking Defense on the sidelines of the International Fighter Conference on Tuesday.
He added that L3Harris sees Greece as the “next likely collaborator” of the company’s Viper Shield AN/ALQ-254 solution, a dual package that combines a radar warning receiver and an electronic countermeasure designed for F-16 Block 70/72 or F-16V international customers. L3Harris company literature states that the radar warning receiver allows the fighter jet to detect enemy threats, with the countermeasure acting to jam and disrupt adversary kill chains.
The Hellenic Republic Ministry of Defence did not responded to a request for comment.
As part of a major fighter jet modernization effort, Greece is upgrading 84 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D combat aircraft to the F-16V standard. In September, Lockheed and industry partner Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI) delivered the 42nd upgraded jet, according to a F-16 factsheet [PDF].
The overall program is set to be completed in 2027 and involves integration of Northrop Grumman’s APG-83 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, among other EW and communications systems. A new Viper Shield order would further boost those electronic based capabilities.
“I think you’re going to find in the European air force conglomerate of F-16 buyers, Greece is likely next” to acquire an EW system, claimed Nyikos, following on from Poland’s recent selection of Viper Shield for its F-16V upgrade program.
“They’re in a very similar upgrade program [to Poland] with their F-16. They shared the same blocks with Poland, so they both went through the previous upgrade together, when they upgraded from the” Block 52 to the Block 52+.
Viper Shield is the “right fit” for Greece because of its availability and “fully digital” structure, added Nyikos.
“We’re in production right now … producing hardware that is ready. It also is fit for form in so much as we built it for export from the get go,” he said.
At a wider export level, Lockheed Martin was awarded a $520.4 million contract for Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Viper Shield production in 2024 to cover Bahrain, Bulgaria, Morocco, Slovakia and Taiwan, per the US Department of Defense.
Updated 11/6/25 at 3:20 pm ET to clarify remarks from David Nyikos, director of international EW programs for airborne combat systems at L3Harris.