Argentina F-16s and Bell 407GXi on delivery

On 28 November 2025, six refurbished former Flyvevåbnet (RDAF, Royal Danish Air Force) F-16s left Skrydstrup air base in Denmark for their long journey to join the Fuerza Aérea Argentina (FAA, Argentinian Air Force).

After a request for 38 F-16s, the US congress approved the sale of 24 under the Peace Condor programme and the former Danish F-16s were selected and refurbished.

The Fighting Falcons will join Grupo Aéreo 6 de Caza at Tandil air base, but they will first go to the Área Material IV (ARMACUAR) at Río Cuarto.

The six aircraft of the first delivery comprised two F-16AM and four F-16BM with the following serials:

F-16AM M-1009 (ex E-602, c/n 6F-37) and M-1020 (ex E-007, c/n 6F-50)
F-16BM M-1004 (ex ET-615, c/n 6G-12), M-1005 (ex ET-197, c/n 6G-13), M-1007 (ex ET-199, c/n 6G-15), and M-1008 (ex ET-022, c/n 6G-16)

They are expected to arrive in Brazil via Gando and Natal in Río Cuarto on 5 December. The days after that, they will perform several fly-by's over FAA air bases in western Argentina and the formal hand-over ceremony at Río Cuarto is planned for 12 December.

Maybe a bit less spectacular but occurring at the same time, two Bell 407GXi for the FAA have been delivered also. The helicopters landed at La Serena in Chile prior to the last leg of their delivery to the IV Brigada Aérea at Mendoza. They were carrying Canadian civil registrations, C-GBUB (c/n 56453) and C-FJVR (c/n 56454) but are expected to become H-112 and H-113.

This was a lengthy delivery flight, starting 10 November with numerous stops in the USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and, Chile (Chicureao) were they landed 25 November. After that just the hop over the Andes mountain range to their new home base Mendoza ...

Credit photos: Patrick van Stiphout