Ministry of Defence and Air Force top brass continue to mull figures, methods and plans to find a replacement for the service’s ageing fleet of delta fighters (Mirage, Finger, Mara and Dagger variants). At a ceremony graduating the type’s two newest pilots on 8 April, Air Force Secretary General, Brigadier Jorge M. Reta, said Defence continues to “analyse different options to replace the Mirage weapons system” while re-stating that a “decision to replace [those aircraft] has been [effectively] made”.
But, as it has often been the case in the protracted process to phase out the venerable French and Israeli fighters in Argentine service, Reta would not confirm terms nor dates by pointing out that everything was subject to selection of the replacement aircraft and to matching budget allocations to engineering and operational requirements that will permit purchase not only of the airframes “but everything surrounding [them]”. Keeping a political hatch at hand should the process be further delayed, Reta nonetheless said Argentine Mirages are able to “continue flying” and went on to say that “one of the possibilities under [consideration] is selling [the] present aircraft [fleet] to another country”.
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