A high-level Argentine military
delegation visited Israel recently to
finalize a purchase of Israeli fighter-
jets. The Kfir has not been in
operational use by the Israel Air
Force for nearly 20 years and will be
upgraded by Israel Aircraft
Industries if the contract is signed.
The deal is going ahead at a low
point in Israeli-Argentine relations.
Argentina, which is undergoing a
prolonged economic slump, could
not afford to modernize its military
and purchase front-line fighter
aircraft, not even relatively advanced
second-hand ones. President
Cristina Kirchner, however, promised
her generals to renew their fighter
fleet, after they were forced to retire
the Mirage jets, which were more
than 40 years old. The cheapest
available alternative was to buy a
squadron (12-14 aircraft) of Kfirs,
which were manufactured in the
1970s and early 1980s for around $
200 million. IAI built over 200 Kfirs. After two
decades of service with the Israel
Defense Forces, they were put in
storage in the mid-1990s and
replaced by F-16s. When IAI
manages to sell some to a foreign
air-force, it purchases the necessary
number from the Defense Ministry
and upgrades them with new
avionics including a new Elta radar
and ships them to the client.
Dozens of planes were sold in this
way to Sri Lanka, Colombia and
Ecuador.
According to foreign sources, Kfirs
were sold also to apartheid South
Africa, though Pretoria claimed that
the Cheetah jet, virtually identical to
the Israeli fighters, was
manufactured locally.
The Argentine deal comes at a low
point in relations between Jerusalem
and Buenos Aires in the wake of an
agreement the Kirchner government
made last year with Iran to jointly
investigate the 1994 bombing of the
AMIA Buenos Aires Jewish
community building that killed 85
people and is widely believed to
have been carried out by Hezbollah
with Iranian backing. Despite this,
there do not seem to be any
obstacles in authorizing the sale and
the technology transfer, among other
reasons due to the longstanding
relationship between the two
militaries.
This will be Argentina's second
purchase of Israeli fighter jets. In
1978, the military junta bought 39
used Neshers (the first Israeli fighter
built based on the French Mirage 5s,
which were ordered by Israel but
embargoed by the De Gaulle
government). The Neshers, which
were called Daggers in Argentine
service, participated in the 1982
Falklands war and continued flying
until two years ago.
Israeli defense industry officials
confirmed the details of the deal,
which was also reported earlier this
month in the Argentine weekly
Perfil. The Argentinian Embassy in
Israel and IAI declined to comment.
sumber : Haaretz.com
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