Denmark has agreed in principle to sell Argentina 24 F-16 fighters. A letter of intent (LoI) regarding the sale was signed in Buenos Aires on 26 March 2024 by Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen and Argentine Defence Minister Luis Alfonso Petri.
“I have had a good and extremely fruitful meeting with my Argentinian defence minister colleague, who is happy that Argentina can become part of the wider community of F-16 nations worldwide,” Poulsen was quoted as stating in a 26 March press release issued by the Danish Ministry of Defence.
Paulsen added that the F-16 sale to Argentina “has been done in co-operation with the US” as the original producer of the aircraft. The US State Department announced on 11 October 2023 that it had approved the transfer of 24 Danish F-16s to Argentina.
The Royal Danish Air Force (Flyvevåbnet – FLV) has operated a fast jet combat fleet of 30 Lockheed Martin F-16AM and 13 F-16BM fighters since 1980, but is transitioning to a fleet of 27 Lockheed Martin F-35A Joint Strike Fighters, the first four of which arrived in Denmark on 14 September 2023.
Argentina, meanwhile, has for years struggled to find a replacement for its dwindling fleet of Douglas A-4AR Fightinghawk attack aircraft that entered service from 1998, of which only a handful are likely to remain airworthy. The Argentine Air Force does also operate a small fleet of around seven indigenously produced FAdeA IA 63 Pampa III advanced jet trainers adapted for the light attack role, but this fleet was originally intended to be 40 strong.
Previous Argentine attempts to procure a new fast jet type, including the Korean Aerospace Industries FA-50 and the Chinese/Pakistani-produced CAC/PAC JF-17 Thunder, failed to materialise. This was down to a lack of funding but also a UK veto on military exports to Argentina, given the historic tensions between London and Buenos Aires since the 1982 Falklands War. This has meant that any fighter sold to Argentina would have to be free of UK components.
Denmark is donating its remaining 19 F-16s to Ukraine to help recapitalise the Ukrainian Air Force amid the Russian invasion of that country. The FLV began training Ukrainian pilots and technical specialists on the F-16 in August 2023.
