Argentinian President OKs Super-Etendard Aircraft Purchase

Argentine President Mauricio Macri has given the go-ahead for the purchase of five Super-Etendards, a French carrier-borne strike fighter aircraft designed by Dassault-Breguet, for the Navy for an estimated amount of about 12 million euros, according to a report in French daily La Tribune. 

However, the report has stated that the Argentinian government is yet to make payments. After the payment of the aircraft is done, the Argentineans will then assume the costs related to the removal, transportation, use and maintenance of the five aircraft as well as their equipment, including spare parts, test benches, luggage suitcase, test, equipment, tools, simulator, in addition to eight ATAR 8K50 engines, and their documentation. 

During Mauricio Macri's visit to Paris on January 26, both the governments had signed an agreement, "for the sale of five modernized Super Etendards and their equipment to the Argentine armed forces," said Emmanuel Macron, President of France, at the joint press conference with Mauricio Macri.

"In commercial matters too, we welcomed the agreement signed by our two defense ministers for the sale of five modernized Super Etendards and their equipment to the Argentine armed forces," announced the French president last January.

The Argentine Navy bought Dassault Aviation 14 Super-Etendard in July 1979. Some of them were engaged in the Falklands war. In 1982, a patrol of two planes sank the British destroyer HSM Sheffield, hit by an AM-39 Exocet anti-ship missile (MBDA). Designed by Dassault Aviation for the French Navy and commissioned in 1978, the last Super-Etendard (SEM) were retired from active service on July 12, 2016 at Naval Air Station Landivisiau. These aircraft remained in service for 38 years in the French Navy and demonstrated their capabilities to the very end, being fully integrated into the operations of the airborne group deployed in 2016 in the Gulf.