MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina:
“Air force material obsolete”

Defence Minister Nilda Garré, speaking after an air force pilot died on Tuesday as his plane crashed, said that Argentina's air military material is old due to more than 20 years of “disinvestment.”

"Our air material is old due to more than 20 years of disinvestment in the sector and also to 50 percent budget reductions during more than 20 years," she told Mitre radio. "Between 1983 and 2003 there was no substantial redesign of structures, there was an automatic reduction, and there was no adequate selection of the sectors that should be reduced, and hence we have the consequences on our air material and resources," Garré said. She added that this year the government "has concentrated all efforts in an intensive maintenance of the Fokker F-27 and F-28 which have an average useful life of 37 years." She also said that through "an expansion of resources" last year "an intensive maintenance" of the Hercules airplanes was launched, highlighting that of the 13 existing Hercules only three were available for service. Two were sent to the US for integral repairs and two are being repaired in Colombia, she said. On Wednesday the government suspended all Mirage flights after pilot Marco Peretti, 28, died when his Mirage crashed during an exhibition in Tandil. His remains were buried yesterday in San Francisco, Córdoba province. The causes of the crash are under investigation. Buenos Aires Herald