Destroyer La Argentina was damaged when it rammed its bow against a jetty at the Punta Alta naval base while attempting to make it to the high seas. She is scheduled to join an international naval exercise in the Pacific and bring several helicopters on her return trip from Peru.
A Panama flagged merchant vessel with a crew of 42 sailing in the South Atlantic sent a distress call following “a massive intake of water” in one of its holds, but will attempt to reach the Falkland Islands on its own means, according to a Friday report from the Argentine navy.
Argentina paid homage on Tuesday to the 323 crew and officers who lost their lives when the Navy's cruiser General Belgrano was sunk on 2 May 1982, by a British submersible in the midst of the Falklands conflict 35 years ago.
President Mauricio Macri has approved the purchase of airplanes for the Air Force, patrol vessels for the Navy and armored vehicles and combat rifles for the Army, it was announced Monday to give the Armed Forces back some of their lost firepower, Defense Minister Julio Martínez revealed. The total purchases will surpass 40 billion pesos (2,500 million US dollars), the minister added.
The Argentine ministry of Defense has confirmed that the Navy was involved in military exercises in the high seas last February including firing an upgraded version of MM38 Exocet missiles and trials with a refurbished torpedo from a submarine, reports the Buenos Aires media.
Argentina's Defense minister Julio Martínez has only been in office a few days but he already has a huge challenge on his desk: the four Russian sloops recently arrived in Buenos Aires and which according to the previous administration of Cristina Fernandez cost ten million dollars and are very appropriate for naval patrolling.
Four Russian built sloops with polar capacity were delivered in Buenos Aires this weekend and incorporated to the Argentine Navy, all of them with names related to the Falklands/Malvinas Islands. The vessels were formally received during a ceremony headed by Defense minister Agustín Rossi and the navy chief Admiral Gastón Fernando Erice.
Argentina's foreign ministry is releasing 'secret documents' related to the kidnapping and disappearance of the Swedish teenager Dagmar Hagelin in 1977 during the last military dictatorship, and which at the time crated a longstanding serious diplomatic rift between the two countries.
The Argentine 2015 budget contemplates 25.2 billion pesos (*) for the Defense ministry which includes refurbishing aircraft, tanks, sea vessels and the incorporation of state of the art radars for air space control, according to the bill presented to Congress this last week.
Argentina and Chile announced on Monday the launching of the annual naval exercise known as Viekaren (confidence in Yamana language) in the extreme south of the continent where the two countries territorial waters meet.