President Javier Milei and former defence minister Luis Petri have hailed the arrival of Argentina's first six F-16 jets purchased from Denmark, describing them as "guardian angels" that will strengthen the country's Armed Forces.
The US-built aircraft are among the 24 used supersonic fighters bought last year from Copenhagen for roughly US$300 million – an exchange Milei's government described at the time as Argentina's most important military acquisition in 50 years.
Petri, who resigned his post this week to take up his seat as a national deputy for Mendoza Province, defended the purchase in an interview, dismissing critics as supposed “sommeliers of fighter jets.”
The former defence minister, who oversaw the deal, described the purchase of F-16s as “the most important one by the Armed Forces in the last 40 years” and claimed the Air Force would take “a technological leap of at least 30 years” as a result.
“We achieved effective, not decorative, deterrence, and we regained the control of our airspace.”
Argentina had not had any supersonic planes “since 2015,” he complained.
“I don’t really care about criticism from [opposition] Kirc
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