Exactly. The thing is, German industry lost a lot of faith in their Greek business partners over the U-214 and Leo 2 deals and about how Greece dealt with the intended Eurofighter deal.
Greece might be interested in German tech, the question is, is the German industry willing to take the risks.
If the submarine does not go well within an acceptable timeframe it is a logical step to get rid of a shipyard that only produces losses. So it will probably be sold to an international investor group or something like that.
As was stated before by kato, me and others: Most of the problems have been solved. If you don't believe me, believe kato, he knows stuff. Most other nations will be very keen on laying their hands on these submarines. Once again, for us it is very clear that the behaviour of the Greek government is pure tactics in order to postpone further payments. And I hope it won't pay off for you.
For someone who is quick in disregarding other forumers as kids, it would be nice if you didn't mix apples and pears, proposed serious solutions to serious business ventures and used technical terms and facts to address serious technical challenges.
For starters, the Leo2HEL IS the best tank in the world because the Greek army officers together with KMW made sure it was. The tank was not initially accepted after it failed a very specific armor penetration test in an area that it was expected to be vulnerable at. After the test proved the Greek officers' concerns, KMW strengthened the armor of the area, the tests were repeated and successfully passed. Naturally the first bunch of the tanks with the rectified issue have been officially accepted and KMW received a 100milion EUR payment on May 30th and are receiving another 183 million this week. See how easy things can be? How about Thyssen Krupp trying to follow the pattern here.
Now, on the "intended Eurofighter deal":
a) Greece had not signed any deals (unlike the Austrians who were trying to cancel the deal way past that, if you happen to recollect)
b) Nevertheless, has officially only stated will postpone the purchase past the 2004 Olympics for obvious reasons
c) Is about to order 40+ Tranche 3 EFs. Patience is a virtue.
I cannot see how anyone in here can speak in the name of his own country or his country's industry so please spare us the "lost faith" comments of your local media. We have very funny and poor media reports of our own to laugh at.
The fact is there are no news of technical substance on the Type214 vessels procurement for a very long time now and the negotiation has reached a dead end between HN and Thyssen.
Therefore, since Greece and Germany have and will continue having very strong ties and common interests in all possible aspects in the future, are trying to resolve this at a government level with the German state acting as a mediator that will verify the sanity of the Thyssen claims to HN technical comments.
I have no doubt myself that these vessels will join HN, unfortunately only later rather than sooner than expected (and very much anticipated as well).
Don't forget we do not procure billions of EUR worth of contracts out of trying to keep an industry afloat or keeping up with our NATO obligations. We are unfortunately not Portugal and are facing a very clear and present threat.
Cheers