Argentine Air Force

The Argentine Air Force is organized under the Air Operations Command, which controls the air brigades that hold all operational flying units, supported by separate personnel and materiel commands. The main formations are the IV Air Brigade at Mendoza, the V at Villa Reynolds, the VI at Tandil, the VII at Moreno, the IX at Comodoro Rivadavia and the Air Materiel Area at Rio Cuarto, which functions as the depot-level maintenance organization. Air defense radar coverage has been progressively rebuilt around domestically produced INVAP three-dimensional radars.

For three decades the force operated in managed decline. Sustained underfunding, compounded by British restrictions on components that blocked several fighter options after 1982, left Argentina without a supersonic interceptor once the Mirage fleet was withdrawn in 2015. Combat capability rested on a small number of A-4AR Fightinghawks, and doctrine became largely theoretical, focused on preserving aircrew skills and basic air policing with a limited inventory.

The recapitalization now under way reverses that trajectory. Argentina signed for twenty-four F-16AM/BM Block 15 MLU aircraft from Danish stocks in April 2024 under a Foreign Military Sales arrangement with the United States, covering refurbishment, weapons and support. The first aircraft reached the VI Air Brigade at Tandil in December 2024, a further batch of six arrived at Rio Cuarto in December 2025, and by mid-2026 the type was flying test and training sorties from both locations with around eight airframes handed over. The F-16 restores beyond-visual-range interception, precision strike and NATO-standard weapons integration to a force that had none of these.

The transition closed the A-4 chapter. On 14 May 2026 the Air Force formally retired its remaining A-4AR single-seaters and OA-4AR two-seaters at Villa Reynolds, ending sixty years of Skyhawk operations in Argentine service; the aircraft had effectively been grounded since an accident in mid-2024. Airframes and spares are being consolidated at the V Air Brigade while the unit's future role is decided, and Rio Cuarto has been adapted to support the F-16 weapons system.

Beyond the fighter fleet, the inventory is built on trainers and transports. The IA-63 Pampa III, produced domestically by FAdeA, carries advanced training and light attack, with further airframes on order, and is complemented by the T-6C+ Texan II and the EMB-312 Tucano. Transport rests on the C-130H and KC-130H, the latter providing a tanker capability, together with the Saab 340, ERJ-140, DHC-6 Twin Otter and C-212, several of which support Antarctic operations from Comodoro Rivadavia. Rotary-wing units operate the UH-1H, Bell 212 and MD500. Doctrinally the force has reoriented towards interoperability with Western partners, reflected in Argentina's application to become a NATO global partner and in the training pipelines that accompany the F-16 programme, with attention now turning to replacing the ageing transport fleet and to sustaining a fighter force that remains small relative to the airspace it covers.