A delegation from the Argentine Air Force (FAA) visited this past week Chengdu, China, to evaluate the purchase of JF-17 fighter jets, which may soon form part of the country's defense.
A team of FAA technicians and pilots evaluated the capabilities of Argentina's possible new vector. Among the discussions was also the possibility of companies such as FADEA, Tandanor and Fabricaciones Militares, of Argentine origin, participating in the manufacture of components for the JF-17.
The JF-17 is a fighter developed by Pakistan tly with China (which designates it FC-1), where the Pakistanis own 58% of the manufacture of parts and China the remaining 42%.
The Chinese company CATIC made several technical documents and even a flight simulator available to the Argentine delegation so that the pilots could familiarize themselves with the JF-17 Thunder model.
Despite Argentina denying interest in buying the fighters, at least since 2020 China has been negotiating the acquisition of a batch of 12 PAC JF-17A/B Block III fighters. A visit to China by Argentine Armed Forces delegations will take place in March this year, possibly to align technical details of the acquisition.
The purchase of this lot is valued at US$ 664 million.
The JF-17 is a fighter developed by Pakistan tly with China (which designates it FC-1), where the Pakistanis own 58% of the manufacture of parts and China the remaining 42%. The engine is the Klimov RD-93 of Russian origin, based on the RD-33 used in the MiG-29 Fulcrum and other fighters of the family, capable of propelling the fighter to speeds close to Mach 1.8 (about 2205 km/h).
The aircraft can employ an array of air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, guided bombs, pods and sensors and is operational in the Pakistan Air Forces, Niga © ria and Myanmar.
The Argentine embassy in China said that security cooperation with China is not limited to evaluating the acquisition of JF-17 aircraft. The country is also interested in Chinese-made armored vehicles, and may even purchase Chinese-made air defense systems.
The JF-17 is not currently China's only option. In the coming weeks, the same delegation will travel to Denmark, where they will evaluate the acquisition of used F-16 fighters.
Since the Argentine Air Force retired the Mirage fighters in 2015, the country has been trying to acquire supersonic combat aircraft to perform air defense missions, which today are carried out by a few A-4AR Fightinghawks.
However, the negotiations ended up bumping into the British blockade, due to the conflicts over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands, in 1982, where the United Kingdom emerged victorious. Last year, the British government blocked, definitively, the purchase of KAI FA-50 aircraft, from South Korea, by Argentina.
