The Argentine government officially presented the first Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter for the country’s Air Force on February 24, but the aircraft, known as “Number 25”, is not in flight condition and will only be used for training pilots and maintenance personnel on the ground.
Presented as the F-16BM, the supersonic jet received the designation M-1210 and will be based in Tandil.
The batch of operational fighters, which includes 24 F-16A/B MLU (Mid-Life Upgrade) will only begin to be delivered at the end of 2025, when six aircraft will be sent by Denmark.
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The full fleet will only be available by the end of 2028, the Argentine Ministry of Defense explained.
The only jet received was assembled at the Argentine Air Force (FAA) Material Area in Río Cuarto, Córdoba.
The Argentine Air Force displayed the F-16BM with AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles on the wingtips, as well as AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles on underwing mounts.
In addition, a stand-off precision ground strike weapon positioned next to the Sidewinder suggests that the FAA will have new capabilities against ground targets, in addition to those already announced.
The F-16s will end an uncomfortable gap in the Argentine Air Force, which has not operated a supersonic jet since 2015, when it retired its last Dassault Mirage III.
Several negotiations have ended in failure, such as the sale of KAI’s FA-50 light fighters or the Sino-Pakistani JF-17 fighters. In some cases, the restriction was imposed by the United Kingdom because some aircraft were equipped with Martin Baker ejection seats.
Since the end of the Falklands War, the British government has imposed an embargo on the sale of arms to Argentina.
