Argentina has wanted to have jet fighters for a long time. This time the dust has finally settled.
In order to purchase jet fighters, Atingen successively approached China and India to buy Thunder fighters or Tejas fighters. India has even announced that Argentina will purchase Tejas fighters. As for the outside world, it is also very optimistic about Attingen's purchase of Thunder fighters jointly manufactured by China and Pakistan.
However, after weighing the pros and cons for a while, Argentina still did not have China's Thunder Dragon fighter or India's Tejas fighter, but chose Denmark's second-hand American-made F-16 fighter, which is somewhat unexpected.
This time, Atingen purchased 25 F-16 fighter jets from Denmark with a total contract value of $650 million, of which the price of the fighters is 338 million, equivalent to the price of $13.5 million per fighter. In addition, the remaining $312 million is mainly for the purchase of ammunition and supporting facilities, including air-to-air missiles, engine parts, electronic warfare equipment, pods and helmets, as well as personnel training.
The F-16s purchased by Argentina were made in the 80s of the last century, almost 40 years ago, so Ettingen was able to buy this batch of fighters at the price of cabbage. Although these fighters are close to being scrapped and do not have advanced active phased array radars, they can also launch medium-range air-to-air missiles, and also have a certain ability to strike land, and their overall performance is okay.
At this point, Argentina finally has a third-generation jet fighter, and Argentina has been waiting for this moment for many years, and finally got its wish.
In terms of the performance of the aircraft and the future service period, the second-hand F-16 purchased by Argentina is far less good than China's first Thunder Dragon Block 3 fighters, especially in terms of radar, so why did Argentina choose Denmark's second-hand F-16 instead of the Thunder Dragon Block3? I think it should be three reasons.
First of all, the price of Denmark's F-16 is lower, with 25 fighters plus so many supporting facilities, there are 8 sets of engine parts alone, with a total value of only 650 million US dollars, while the price of China's Thunder Block 3 is 55 million US dollars each, and the total price of 12 fighters is 664 million US dollars. In other words, for the price of 1 brand new Thunder fighter, you can buy 2 used F-16s.
Secondly, Argentina's purchase of third-generation jet fighters is not at all a real combat and the recovery of the Falklands, but to fill the façade, and if it is a façade, the scale of 25 will naturally be more spectacular than 12.
Third, and most importantly, Argentina's purchase of American-made fighters is a gesture of goodwill to Europe and the United States, and to throw itself into their arms in exchange for the latter's support for it in all aspects, including economics. Argentina's economic development is not optimistic, and from the bottom of their hearts, they want to urgently get external assistance, perhaps, in the eyes of the Argentines, buying fighter planes from Europe and the United States is equivalent to getting on the chariot of Europe and the United States, and in the future, when they encounter difficulties, Europe and the United States will help. The fact is that China has helped Argentina far more than Europe and the United States.
However, the purchase of a second-hand F-16 from Denmark can be seen as a bellwether for Argentina to throw itself into the arms of Europe and the United States. This time, Argentina still did not choose China.