Argentina abandons plans to acquire new fighter jets

At the start of the Falklands War, the Argentine Air and Naval Air Force fielded 240 aircraft, including more than a hundred modern Mirage IIIE, Dagger, Skyhawk and Super Etendard fighters, one of the most powerful fighter fleets in America. from South. While 35 fighters were lost during the conflict, the slow decline of the Argentine Air Force since the end of the conflict had many causes, including the end of Buenos Aires' military ambitions with the overthrow of the dictatorship of General Leopoldo Galtieri following the defeat the Falklands, the repeated economic crises that have hit the country since, as well as the severe embargo imposed by Great Britain on the sale of Western aircraft. In fact, today, the Argentine Air Force is only a shadow of what it was in the early 80s, with around twenty A-4AR Fightinghawks and less than ten training aircraft. Pampa 3 in service, and no more supersonic fighters for a 2,8 million km2 country bordered by 6000 km of coastline and 10.000 km of land borders.

For several years, the Argentine authorities had been trying to acquire new modern fighters, to take over from the Skyhawks which had already been pushed well beyond their planned flight potential. Despite the economic difficulties encountered by the country following the crisis of 2001 and then that of 2013, several alternatives were studied, including the Israeli Kfir C7, the American F-16 C/D, the Indian Tejas and the South Korean FA-50. However, as has always been the case since 1982, Britain each time imposed its veto on the export of Martin-Baker ejection seats, leading most of the negotiations to an impasse, apart from the F-16. which can be fitted with the American ACES II ejection seat. But the most promising discussions seemed to be about the acquisition of Chinese FC-1, also known as JF-17 in Pakistan, with some information even indicating that Argentine teams had traveled to Pakistan to evaluate the aircraft, which can accommodate both a British and Chinese ejection seat.

For many Argentine specialist commentators, the decision to acquire a batch of new fighters, the FC-1 and the F-16 being most often cited, had to be made quickly, especially since a specific credit line of 600 m $ had appeared in Argentine budget planning. Hopes were severely dashed on December 7 by a tweet published by Argentinian President Alberto Fernandez Prensa, and in a video interview given to the Financial Times. Indeed, for the Argentine head of state, " Argentina must devote its resources to more important things than the purchase of military aircraft today", and to add " We are on a very unequal continent, where there is no war", and to conclude " For us, there are other priorities than buying weapons“. In fact, the acquisition program for new fighter planes has been purely and simply cancelled, not even suspended, and it is likely that other programs for the acquisition or modernization of equipment for the Argentine armies will also be postponed or even cancelled.

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