MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
US to provide Argentina with 24 state of the art T6-C Texan II training aircraft
The aircraft will be used for training pilots as well as in “border control missions, particularly the porous northern border of Argentina” 
The training aircraft will also represent a strong material and morale boost for the depleted Argentine Air Force 
Buenos Aires reports indicate Macri is also looking to replace the decommissioned French built Mirage with a light fighter plane, the Aermacchi M346. Argentina is in the process of purchasing 24 T6-C Texan II training aircraft from the United States, which will also be employed in border control and combating drugs. Apparently the operation has been approved by the US Defense Department and was one of several good news Secretary of State brought last week when he visited Buenos Aires.
The aircraft will be used for training pilots as well as in “border control missions, particularly the porous northern border of Argentina”, according to the release announcing the operation with Beechcraft which will demand 300 million dollars.
The sale is considered a strong gesture to help cement bilateral relations between Argentina and the United States, launched by president Barack Obama when he visited the country last March upgrading deteriorated relations to almost a strategic partnership.
The training aircraft will also represent a strong material and morale boost for the depleted Argentine Air Force, which has very few units in flying conditions hampering the training of new pilots.
According to Buenos Aires reports, the president Mauricio Macri administration is also looking to replace the obsolete decommissioned French built Mirage with a light fighter plane, the Aermacchi M346.
Since taking office president Macri has repeatedly said that the Armed Forces have a “preponderant and participative” role to play in the three objectives of his administration, zero poverty, defeating the drugs trade and uniting Argentines. However members of the opposition question having the military involved in domestic security issues which is specifically banned by law.
The Beechcraft T6-C Texan II is a single-engine turboprop aircraft built by the Raytheon Aircraft Company, which became Hawker Beechcraft and later Beechcraft Corporation.
Based on the Pilatus PC-9, the T-6 has replaced the US Air Force's Cessna T-37B Tweet and US Navy's T-34C Turbo Mentor. The T-6A is used by the US Air Force for basic pilot training and Combat Systems Officer (CSO) training and by the US Navy and US Marine Corps for Primary and Intermediate Naval Flight Officer (NFO) training. The T-6A is also used as a basic trainer by the Royal Canadian Air Force; the Greek Air Force, the Israeli Air Force, and the Iraqi Air Force. The T-6B is the primary trainer for U.S. Student Naval Aviators. The T-6C is used for training by the Royal Moroccan Air Force, the Royal New Zealand Air Force and the Mexican Air Force.
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Read all commentsI hope all goes well with this sale / transfer. The T6-C aircraft really are very good.
Aug 11th, 2016 - 11:53 am 0It's nice to see Argentina buying new, current technology to learn from... not used, refurbished second-hand material from other countries doing upgrades.
Best wishes everyone.
There is of course one serious omission which will need rectifying before the planes get to Argentina: no training wheels each side halfway down the fuselage!
Aug 11th, 2016 - 12:01 pm 0:o)
An interesting reminder of what Kirchnerismo did for the country. In 2015 for lack of decent trainers and funding, Argentine naval aviation was able to train and graduate/qualify only two pilots. And even then, the trainer aircraft were old recycled Grobs that had been “assembled” in Argentina for propaganda purposes, but actually constructed in Germany. The FAA (Argie Air Farce) was equally denied - of the few pilots remaining, many had their qualification delayed by years for lack of training assets, including trainer aircraft. Only about 5 of the Grobs could be kept operational at any given time. In fact neither the Argentine air force nor its naval aviation wings were allowed to have their own trainers by the Kirchner government: the Grobs were rented to the armed forces by the “Fábrica Argentina de Aviones” which had been turned over to La Cámpora as a pit in which to throw funds for political purposes, but which was useless for actually building aircraft.
Aug 11th, 2016 - 02:01 pm 0One of the USMILGP officers told me once that the Honduran Air Force could silence the entire Argentine military flying forces in 60 minutes.
It will take many years for Argentina to recreate any sort of meaningful military capability, just as it will take decades for Third World Argentina to be thought of as even minimally serious as a nation.
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