{"id":59872,"date":"2025-06-11T20:33:51","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T18:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=59872"},"modified":"2025-06-17T21:53:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T19:53:22","slug":"pro-russian-channels-said-the-argentine-f-16s-were-junk-and-now-theyre-in-for-a-surprise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/06\/11\/pro-russian-channels-said-the-argentine-f-16s-were-junk-and-now-theyre-in-for-a-surprise\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-Russian channels said the Argentine F-16s were 'junk' and now they're in for a surprise"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a wise Spanish saying that \"ignorance is bold,\" and this can often be applied to military matters.<\/p>\n

An F-16 fighter jet defeated the larger and more modern Russian Su-35S with a little Swedish help<\/a><\/rel>
\nArgentina buys 24 F-16s and we can now see how they will be armed and decorated<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n

In April 2024, Argentina announced the purchase of 24 F-16 fighter jets from Denmark<\/a>, a historic acquisition that will serve to renew the Argentine Air Force, whose only jet fighter aircraft were old A-4AR Fightinghawks. This purchase was made in the first months of the term of the libertarian Javier Milei<\/strong>, who was sworn in as President of the Republic of Argentina on December 10, 2023.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

It should be remembered that the previous Argentine president, the leftist Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez<\/strong>, had considered the purchase of Chinese-Pakistani JF-17 Thunder fighters<\/a>, a model that made its first flight in 2003 but with inferior performance to the older F-16. So far, the JF-17 only has four buyers:<\/strong> Azerbaijan, Myanmar, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Significantly, China, which manufactures this fighter, has not even purchased it for its air force.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

As I noted then, the purchase of the JF-17 would have confirmed Argentina's rapprochement with the geopolitical sphere of China and Russia<\/strong> and its distancing from the West. The purchase of those 24 F-16s has meant just the opposite. The Kremlin doesn't seem very happy with this shift<\/strong>, and this displeasure has also been noted in the news about the Argentine F-16s published by pro-Russian channels.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

In August 2023, the pro-Russian Mexican YouTube channel \"Canal Conocimiento Militar\" published a video<\/a> calling the F-16s offered to Argentina \"junk\"<\/strong> claiming that \"Colombia didn't even want them.\" The video was a pamphlet attributing Argentina's potential purchase of the F-16 to an attempt to block Russian and Chinese influence in Ibero America. In April 2024, another pro-Russian channel, the Argentine Data Urgente, published another video<\/a> calling the F-16s purchased by Argentina \"junk planes.\"<\/strong> This channel regretted that Argentina did not purchase the JF-17, which has not yet participated in any known air-to-air combat.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The surprise came with the recent combat in which a Ukrainian F-16AM shot down a Russian Su-35S fighter<\/a>, a larger and more modern model<\/strong> that has succumbed to a modernized version of the American fighter.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

It should be noted that Argentine F-16s, like the Ukrainian ones, are modernized aircraft<\/strong> in the MLU version (mid-life upgrade) of the F-16AM (single-seat) and F-16BM (two-seat) versions. In addition to this, in March 2025, a contract was approved for Lockheed Martin to subject the Argentine F-16s to a new modernization process<\/b>, which will include improvements in electronic warfare systems, weapons employment capability, maintenance, etc., as reported by Pucar\u00e1 Defensa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Significantly, the article I published this Monday about that F-16 victory over a Su-35S<\/a> has received tens of thousands of views from Argentina<\/strong>. Apparently, many Argentines have suddenly discovered that these pro-Russian channels were not telling the truth: their F-16s are not only not \"junk\", but can defeat more modern Russian fighters<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

---<\/p>\n

Photos: Fuerza A\u00e9rea Argentina.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a wise Spanish saying that \u00abignorance is bold,\u00bb and this can often be applied to military matters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19534,11546],"tags":[2081,20349,20347,1257],"class_list":["post-59872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-portada-eng","category-military-aviation","tag-argentina","tag-argentine-air-force","tag-chengdu-pac-jf-17-thunder","tag-general-dynamics-f-16-fighting-falcon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59872"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}