The Russian Satellite News Agency announced on April 16 that Argentine President Milley and Defense Minister Petri announced the purchase of 24 F-16 fighters for the Argentine Air Force. It is reported that the total price of these 24 F-16 fighters is about 650 million US dollars, and the country sold is Denmark.
As early as September 2021, Argentina had planned to introduce a batch of multi-role fighters to protect its airspace. At that time, the Argentine Ministry of Defense was interested in a variety of aircraft, including Pakistan's JF-17 Thunder, India's LCA Tejas and France's Rafale and South Korea's FA-50.
Since Argentina once faced serious financial problems, many people speculated that the most cost-effective JF-17 "Thunder" was the best choice for Argentina.
Argentine President Milley
Later, it was also rumored that Argentina will carry out in-depth cooperation with China on the procurement of Thunder fighters, and China is also full of sincerity for this cooperation, and the purchase price of Thunder fighters is not only preferential, but also willing to transfer the production and assembly line to Argentina to share technology with Argentina.
However, at the end of 2023, after Milley, the representative of the far-right forces in Latin America, became the new president of Argentina, Argentina canceled the plan to introduce the "Thunder" fighter, and it took only four months to determine the F-16 as the introduced model. This move by Argentina is very much in line with Milley's pro-American policy.
The F-16 was also defeated by India's LCA Tejas fighter jets, but the Indian media was very interesting, sneering at China that Argentina's plan to "infiltrate the U.S. backyard" with Chinese weapons had failed.
Thunder fighter
At present, with its excellent performance and cost performance, the Thunder fighter has been purchased by Iraq, Pakistan, Myanmar, Nigeria and other countries, and the total export volume has approached 150.
On the other hand, India's "Brilliant" fighter has repeatedly been exposed to crash scandals, claiming that the localization rate is as high as 60%, but in fact, the internal parts are "made in all countries", such as Israel's radar, the flight control system and engine of the United States' Loma, the UK's cockpit roof and refueling pipe, and the United Arab Emirates' long-range precision-guided munitions. Why don't the Indian media come up with these things?
Let's talk about the Argentine deal, which is more like a show of loyalty to the United States by the new administration. The purchase of 24 second-hand F-16s from Denmark at a cost of $650 million is itself a loss-making deal.
F-16 fighter
This time, Argentina purchased mainly the early F-16A/B model, which seems to be cheap, but this batch of fighters is conservatively estimated to have been in service with Denmark for more than 40 years. In recent years, as the F-35 has become the new favorite of the international arms trade market, Denmark, which is not short of money, naturally wants to upgrade its own fighters.
In fact, for us, the Thunder fighter is not necessarily a bad thing. From an economic point of view, after Milley came to power, Argentina's economic situation has not improved, but inflation has intensified. To date, China is also one of Argentina's major creditors. Even if Millet agrees to buy the Thunder, it is still unknown whether the Argentine treasury will have enough dollar reserves.
From a political point of view, the current government of Argentine President Milley is a pro-US government, and the export of weapons and equipment to Argentina will itself bring hidden dangers to the mainland's military secrets. When Argentina and China negotiated the introduction of the Thunder fighter plane, it was at a time when the pro-China faction Fernandez was in power, and there was still room for negotiation in this matter, and today's Argentina is no longer what it used to be.
Previously, Turkey had introduced Russia's S400 air defense system, so it was sanctioned by the United States, which used the restriction of F-35 exports as a bargaining chip to force Turkey to disclose the core technology of the S400. Russia can be described as "a dumb eater of Coptis chinensis, unable to speak of bitterness" and can only hastily develop a new air defense system.
Argentina and Denmark finalized the F-16 deal, and in fact, none of the countries participating in the bidding are serious, but there is one country that may feel extremely disappointed: Ukraine.
Last year, Denmark promised to provide Ukraine with F-16 fighters, and some careful netizens found that a sample of an F-16 fighter appeared in the photos exposed when Argentina signed a contract with Denmark recently, and this fighter has been labeled with the Argentine flag, and this aircraft is the same model as Zelensky boarded in Denmark last year.
You know, there are only more than 70 F-16s in Denmark, and some of them are under maintenance. Therefore, it is very likely that the batch of F-16s sold to Argentina was planned to be aided to Ukraine at that time, which also reflects from the side that the West's attitude towards Ukraine has changed.