With Stryker deal, Argentina tightens US defense ties

WASHINGTON — During a visit to Washington, DC to meet directly with US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Argentina’s defense minister Luis Petri took the opportunity to sign a letter of agreement for 8×8 M1126 Stryker infantry fighting vehicles.

Analysts said last week’s deal, along with another last year for American-made but used F-16 fighter jets, have come just in time to boost US-Argentine relations, as China looms in the background.

“Long-promised agreements have finally reached the finish line,” Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Breaking Defense. But Berg said of the F-16 deal in particular, “we have to ask ourselves why it took so long” and “why did it require a JF-17 Chinese-Pakistani fighter jet [potentially] going to the region to get the F-16s to Argentina” before Washington took greater action.

If the acquisition of the Strykers proceeds, it will enable the Argentine Army to modernize its fleet of armored vehicles, which is currently centered on aging M113 A1/A2 platforms and domestically manufactured TAM VCTP infantry combat vehicles.

It remains unclear how many Strykers will be transferred. At press time, Pentagon spokespeople had not responded to a query by Breaking Defense regarding the quantity of vehicles and expected delivery dates. General Dynamics Land Systems, producer of the Strykers, declined to comment as well.

Nevertheless, the Argentine Army said in a July 3 press release that in June, a delegation visited a US base in Washington state “to inspect eight Stryker vehicles.” Acquiring the Strykers, the South American army said, will help “build a more modern, interoperable” force with power-projection capabilities.

The acquisition of the Strykers would be the second high-profile acquisition by Argentina in the past year, following the purchase of a fleet of 24 used F-16 warplanes from the Royal Danish Air Force. An aircraft for training purposes has already been delivered, and the other aircraft will soon arrive. Petri visited Copenhagen in June to inspect the warplanes firsthand, saying, “The F-16 that we saw in Denmark and that will arrive in our country in December are real air power.”

Six F-16s are scheduled to arrive in the South American country by the end of the year.

“Our relationship is at its best point, and our partnership will continue to grow in all areas of government, but fundamentally in defense,” Petri said during his DC visit.

Analysts told Breaking Defense that taken together, the two sales highlight the objectives of the current Argentine President Javier Milei to strengthen ties with Washington. Besides the sales, high-profile visits have occurred recently. A couple of months before Petri visited the Pentagon, Adm. Alvin Holsey, Commander of the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), visited Argentina for three days at the end of April.

During the visit, the senior US Navy official met with Milei, Petri, and Chief of the Argentine Armed Forces’ Joint Staff Gen. Xavier Isaac. The topics addressed included “US-Argentina military collaboration” and also “US support to Argentine efforts to modernize the nation’s defense capabilities,” according to SOUTHCOM.

Milei has “embarked on a revamped policy of close cooperation with the US,” said Ignacio Albe, program assistant at the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin American Center. He added, “this military rapprochement also serves a political purpose, adding to the efforts being made to drive closer ties between Washington and Buenos Aires.” Milei met with US President Donald Trump in Washington in February to discuss how the countries can “work closer together.”

Washington’s Win Is Beijing’s Loss

There is one big loser regarding this Buenos Aires-Washington defense rapprochement. As Breaking Defense has previously discussed, China has been attempting to secure arms sales to Latin America with limited success.

In the case of Argentina, Chinese defense firm NORINCO had offered its 6×6 WMZ-551B1 armored vehicles to the Argentine Army; in April 2023 then-Argentine Defense Minister Jorge Taiana met with a NORINCO delegation on this topic. Beijing also tried to sell CAC/PAC JF-17 Thunder to the country’s Air Force, with Argentine delegations traveling to China to review the aircraft. The potential ramifications of Chinese warplanes operated by Argentina was debated in the US Congress, specifically in the House’s Western Hemisphere Subcommittee in 2023.

“The penetration of China in Latin America is real and terrifying,” Rep. María Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., said at the time, prior to the F-16 deal. She added that since China had already sold military equipment to Bolivia and Venezuela, the prospect of selling fighter jets to Argentina “is very concerning.”

Ultimately both ventures did not work, however Washington’s concern about Chinese arms sales to Latin America remains.

China’s attempts to increase its influence on defense issues and  the evolving security landscape of the South Atlantic finally convinced Washington to work “with the United Kingdom to lift its veto on the supply to Argentina of military equipment with British components, a policy legacy of the Malvinas war of 1982,” explained Jason Marczak, vice president and senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center.

Southern Cone Security Issues

Geopolitics are a critical factor to keep in mind, like Argentina’s location just north of Antarctica. “With new security challenges, it’s important to see increased cooperation between the US, UK, and Argentina in a region that is the gateway to the South Pole,” Marczak added. (Argentina and the UK are two of seven countries which claim Antarctic territory, though their claims overlap).

Otherwise, Argentina has generally cordial relations with its neighbors, although the Falklands/Malvinas Islands dispute with the United Kingdom remains an unresolved issue. In other words, the probability of inter-state warfare is very low.

“The Southern Cone [of South America] remains one of the world’s most peaceful and stable regions,” said Marczak.

The country’s primary security challenges involve transnational criminal organizations and drug smuggling, Berg explained. The situation is particularly problematic in Argentina’s northern borders with Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. It is common for aircraft to enter Argentine airspace and land in the country carrying narcotics. In January, a Cessna 210 aircraft was detained upon landing in Entre Ríos province, which borders Uruguay. Authorities said that aboard were 350 kilograms of cocaine.

Buenos Aires is installing radars in strategic locations to improve control of its airspace, and the F-16s will help “respond quickly to violations of its sovereignty as well as to better combat drug trafficking over its northern border,” explained Marczak.

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing by extra-regional, distant-water fishing fleets, primarily from China, is another problem “which costs billions in lost revenue,” Marczak noted.

Hence, enhanced naval capabilities for power projection across Argentina’s exclusive economic zone in the South Atlantic is another pressing issue. “More surveillance naval craft would be ideal to monitor distant-water Chinese fleets,” Berg concluded.