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In March 2022, a news officially released by the Argentine Embassy in China caused heated discussions among military fans, saying that "our dragon has another chance." ”
The content of this dynamic is mainly that the Argentine side has recently re-analyzed the performance of the Thunder Dragon fighter jointly developed by the mainland and Pakistan, and believes that the Argentine side still has a great chance of restarting the process of purchasing the Thunder Dragon fighter.
The news seems to be a very good thing, so why do many military fans and netizens say that "again" there is a chance? It turns out that Argentina's purchase of fighters has already been a twist and turn.
If you fall behind, you will be beaten
On March 2, local time, a new round of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting was held in New Delhi, India. What was supposed to be a high-end summit for many countries to discuss how to develop their economies has changed this time, not only Blinken has disregarded etiquette and Lavrov yelling, but other countries have also turned more to regional conflicts and national security issues.
G20 Summit
Among them, the talks between Argentina and the United Kingdom are particularly noteworthy, because it is a long-standing historical problem, and the two countries have also fought wars because of this, that is, the Anglo-Armagh War.
The Malvinas Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean are located only 500 kilometres from the Argentine mainland. Because of its special geographical location and the island's resources, it was coveted by the great powers. First the French established a port on the island, followed by the British who began to base themselves on the island, and then the French sold the port to Spain.
France, Spain, and the United Kingdom, the old maritime hegemons, fought for a small island like Falklands, and control of the Falklands changed hands several times. When Argentina declared independence in 1816, the colonists on the Falklands abandoned the Falklands for their own reasons, so Argentina regained the proper ownership of the Falklands Islands when the islands did not declare national ownership.
But it didn't end so simply, and soon after, Argentina briefly withdrew its troops as Argentina and the Americans clashed again. The British took the opportunity to occupy the Falklands again and seized them by force for more than sixty years.
So what was Argentina's attitude at that time?
Because Argentina's national strength was weak at that time, the country depended on British aid and investment in many aspects of the economy and trade, so even if the public voice was deafening, the government always turned a blind eye to the British seizure of the Falklands. It was not until Perón was elected president of Argentina in 1946 that the Falklands were reclaimed after the national strength had been largely restored.
Despite many consultations, peace talks were never reached, until April 1982, when a series of battles broke out between the two countries over the capture of the Falklands.
Because the world's navies were debating whether to continue to develop giant aircraft carriers, Britain hesitated to keep two light aircraft carriers. And it is precisely because of the air power brought by these three aircraft carriers that Britain has the last laugh.
At that time, the Argentine Air Force had Mirage 3 and A4 Skyhawk attack aircraft and French Super Flag, as well as self-produced Pukara attack aircraft, which was still a considerable number of 122 fighters. But because Argentina has only one outdated British Giant-class aircraft carrier and no airfield off the coast, most planes can only take off from the interior and fly across the ocean to fight over the Falklands.
Although Britain has an aircraft carrier, because the Harrier fighters on board are vertical takeoff and landing, it consumes huge fuel consumption and reduces the combat radius, thus affecting the exertion of air power. For this reason, Britain could only choose to use ships as the main focus in the early stage.
The Argentine Air Force was still very eye-catching in the early days, most notably using Super Flag fighters to launch the Exocet missile purchased from France and sink the British destroyer Sheffield.
However, because Argentina only bought 5 "Exocets" from France before the war, France no longer sold them to Argentina after the war, and the latest "Sea Harrier fighters" transported by Britain to the front line from the rear and changed tactics in time, after almost eliminating Argentine air power, won the battle for the Falklands.
In this battle, Britain lost 34 fighters, while Argentina lost 105 aircraft of various types, including more than 60 fighters, which was a big blow to Argentina.
In the final analysis, it is the insufficient comprehensive strength of the country that leads to backward equipment. So since then, while developing its national strength, Argentina has also begun to actively look for high-quality weapons that can be purchased.
A tough road to strength
After the Falklands War, Britain did not stop the "ravage" of Argentina, not only taking advantage of the Falklands geographical advantages to "jam the neck", but also imposed an arms embargo policy on Argentina, always restricting Argentina's arms imports. It was not until the 90s of the last century, after the United Kingdom relaxed the embargo, that Argentina began to purchase fighters again.
Argentina once wanted to purchase fighters produced by Israel, Spain, the United States and other countries, but due to various reasons such as changes in state power and economic problems, they all failed, so that by 2016, Argentina's air force had no jet fighters, and the whole returned to the era of propeller fighters.
It was in this context that Argentina began its plans to purchase military aircraft.
In 2021, Argentina announced that it was ready to use $664 million in military spending to purchase a number of multirole fighters. The Argentine military has repeatedly selected among the fighters provided by many countries, the first is the American fighter, but because the price is too expensive, it has to take a back seat.
South Korea, Spain, Israel, Sweden, Russia, India, as well as Chinese and Pakistani Thunder fighters are on Argentina's purchase list.
However, because the United States lost orders and Britain would not let Argentina's air force grow, the two hegemonic countries obstructed it, and some countries were forced to stop trading with Argentina's fighters. In desperation, Argentina targeted China's military purchases.
In 2015, Argentina and China set up a joint working group to investigate whether the Argentine air force system is suitable for the Thunder Dragon fighter, and the Argentine president also made a special trip to China to communicate with relevant departments on the issue of purchasing military aircraft. After a stage of communication, the intention of purchasing 14 Thunder Dragons was initially reached.
However, just when people thought that a deal would be reached between China and Argentina, Argentina suddenly and unilaterally announced that it would stop the purchase of fighter aircraft.
In fact, while Argentina is considering China's dragon, India, which is also a competitor, is also increasing its competition against Argentina.
In order to enable Argentina's $600 million deal to be successfully signed, Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar made a special visit to Argentina.
Through diplomatic visits, Jaishankar not only met with the Argentine Foreign Minister but also continuously promoted India's Tejas fighter jets on various occasions.
The conditions offered by the Indian side to the Argentine side were also very favorable, not only in terms of prices much lower than the initial offer, but also with the addition of many incidental services.
Jaishankar Jaishankar
Therefore, out of consideration of comprehensive interests, Argentina still suspended the signing process with China and continued negotiations with India instead, and even the Indian media happily announced to the outside world: China's thunder dragon has been out, and the Tejas fighter has created "brilliant" again.
No one expected that Argentina's "no-show agreement" this time also did not continue with India. Not only because India's Tejas fighters use a large number of British-made accessories, but also because of various British interventions, the Indian side has temporarily stopped the signing process.
Therefore, India also failed to successfully sign a contract with Argentina, and Argentina still did not purchase military aircraft from any aspect.
Which is stronger and weaker
So, India's brilliance and the mainland's dragon, purely from the performance point of view, which is better or worse?
Let's first look at India's sale of the MK-1A Tejas to Argentina, which is a second-generation modification of the Tejas FOC. Compared to the first generation, the second generation has an airborne fire control radar, air-to-air missiles for combat use, and an air refueling device.
According to India, the aircraft has reached 50% localization in the production of parts, but judging by the successful intervention of the British side, this is completely empty words.
The new generation of Tejas fighters use Israel's airborne radar, according to the available data indicators show that it can track 64 targets at a distance of 150 kilometers, coupled with the Israeli "Snake" air-to-space combat missile with a range of 160 kilometers and a flight speed of more than Mach 4, it can be regarded as relatively ahead in strike capability.
In terms of the power of the aircraft, the American F404 single-engine engine is used, which can produce a maximum thrust of 90 kN, allowing the aircraft to reach a maximum flight speed of Mach 1.6.
In modern warfare, electronic combat systems also play an important role. The Tejas uses Israel's EL8222 electronic jamming pod, which is said to maximize interference without having a great impact on itself.
Based on all the data, the performance of the Indian Tejas fighter should be relatively good. However, data is still data after all, not only does the Tejas fighter not only have no actual combat experience, but many accessories are not very mature, such as the "Monster Snake" and "Derby" missiles mainly carried, which are still in the stage of research and development.
Let's look at the Thunder Dragon fighter jointly developed by China and Pakistan.
The Thunder Dragon is a light fighter jointly developed by the mainland and Pakistan, which is designed to replace the French Mirage 3 and Mirage 5 fighters in the Pakistan Air Force, as well as Chinese-made aircraft such as the J-5 and Qiang-5.
Because Pakistan's air force system at that time had both European countries and Soviet and Chinese fighters, the Thunder Dragon took into account the technical and performance advantages of both aspects in design.
Since 2007, the Thunder Dragon fighter has been in service with the Pakistan Air Force and has performed well in many live-fire exercises. However, the initial evaluation of the Thunder Dragon in Western military circles is not very high, and in the case of various political or subjective consciousness, the positioning of the Thunder Dragon is basically the middle level of the third-generation fighter.
The current Thunder Dragon is already the third generation version of the Thunder Dragon, and compared with the original machine, it has made great progress in terms of quality and performance.
The airborne radar used in the Thunder Dragon III aircraft adopts the KLJ7A fire control radar produced by China itself. In terms of maximum detection range, it can reach 170 kilometers, and the dragon is 20 kilometers longer than the radiance. The unique "three-sided array" design can make the radar irradiation area wider, which is 100 degrees more than the general radar 200 degrees irradiation area, and can reach 300 degrees.
The Thunder Dragon's wider irradiation area and farther radar allow the Thunder Dragon to detect the opponent before the opponent and grasp the opportunity earlier and faster.
In terms of strike capabilities, the advantages of the Thunder Dragon third-generation aircraft are also obvious. The close-range combat missile equipped by the Thunder Dragon is the PL10E missile, which is famous for its high maneuvering speed, large angle off-axis launch, excellent anti-stealth ability and anti-jamming ability, and even the mainland's star fighter J-20 uses this combat missile.
In the equipment of medium and long-range missiles, the Thunderbolt uses the PL15 interceptor missile, known as the "Thunderbolt". It is said that at the beginning of the service of this missile, the United States once issued a statement that "this missile has exceeded the range of Amram, and the explosive power is also extremely huge, which has caused a great threat to the US Air Force". The PL15 has already reached a maximum firing range of 200 km and can strike at opponents beyond the horizon.
In terms of data comparison, it is clear that the thunder dragon is better than the brilliance, and more importantly, the data of the thunder dragon in actual combat is obvious to all.
In 2019, there was an air war between Pakistan and India. According to Pakistani media reports, a MiG-21 aircraft flown by an experienced veteran pilot of the Indian Air Force was shot down by a new Pakistani pilot flying a Thunder Dragon fighter.
This successful shooting down news is undoubtedly the most powerful proof of the combat effectiveness of the Thunder Dragon fighter.
The reason for swaying from side to side
If the Thunder Dragon's data is better than the glorious data and record, why does Argentina still swing left and right? Analyzing it, you can find that Argentina is actually a last resort.
First, Argentina does have economic difficulties.
Today's Argentina is no longer the small hegemon of the Americas at the beginning, but a foreign debt, and after several debt crises, Argentina has difficulty even repaying interest. It is difficult to rely solely on tourism and football to support a country's spending in all aspects.
Second, Argentina wants to bargain.
The so-called "shop fraud", Argentina has become relatively difficult to choose among the various fighter products provided by many countries. Because of the more selectivity, Argentina used this as a reason to try to lower prices. So the suspension of contracts with China is really just a way for Argentina to bargain.
Third, the pressures brought by international politics.
The original intention of Argentina's military buildup was to be able to fight with Britain, and Britain and other allies certainly did not want Argentina's military capabilities to improve, so they continued to create problems for Argentina and countries that might trade arms with Argentina internationally.
Originally, because of the above reasons, there were not many opportunities for Argentina to choose, but with the gradual decline of the United States and Western forces in the recent period, and the gradual increase of the mainland's influence in the world, the pressure on Argentina has gradually decreased, so Argentina once again issued a signal to purchase dragon fighters from the mainland.
epilogue
No matter what reason Argentina is in, whether it is not allowed by its own conditions or affected by the external environment, after all, this kind of left and right swinging behavior is what we and I do not want to see, if Argentina continues this kind of "untrustworthy" behavior in the future, I am afraid that it can only go to India to purchase.