COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Argentina’s defense minister signed a deal Tuesday worth about 2.1 billion crowns ($300 million) to buy 24 aging Danish F-16 fighter jets.
Denmark is getting new F-35 aircraft, and the sale of the nearly 40-year-old F-16s that have been “thoroughly maintained and technologically updated” means Argentina will become “part of the global F-16 family,” the Danish said Minister of Defence, Troels Lund Poulsen.
Denmark has 30 operational F-16s. An unknown number of the remaining planes have been promised to Ukraine as part of a donation.
No date has been announced for when the F-16s are to be handed over to Argentina. It is expected that they will be transferred in the coming years.
Denmark has ordered 27 F-35A fighter jets and the transition will take place at the end of 2025.
In March, Poulsen visited Argentina and signed a letter of intent to sell some Danish F-16 jets. Tuesday’s deal was signed at a Danish air base.
