The U.S. Department of Defense has just awarded Raytheon Corporation a $398.6 million contract for the manufacture of AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles , in a package that includes Argentina among a list of 31 purchasing countries. The transaction formalizes the authorization, extended until the end of 2024, to equip the F-16 fighter jets purchased from Denmark with 36 missiles of the AIM-120C-8 variant.

This dollar-denominated debt occurs in the worst context of material suffocation of the Argentine Armed Forces in our recent history, with a cut that already exceeds $59 billion pesos .

The contradiction is alarming: the Government goes into debt to acquire advanced air interception weapons systems while paralyzing pilots' flight hours and tying up the Fleet because it cannot pay for patrol fuel.

1. X-ray of the AMRAAM: An 80s technology

The AIM-120 AMRAAM (Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile ) is NATO's most widely used radar-guided air-to-air missile. However, far from being a revolutionary technology, it is a platform whose design dates back to the end of the Cold War.

2. The technological gap compared to world powers

Selling Argentina the AMRAAM doesn't alter the balance of power in the South Atlantic; it simply reinforces our logistical dependence on Washington. If we compare this technology with that used by the world's most powerful nations, its relative obsolescence becomes clear.

3. The Malvinas paradox: The same supplier for the usurper

The most cynical detail in the report published byZona Militar is the coexistence of two entities under the acquisition contract. Raytheon manufactures the missiles at the same Arizona plant under a "cost-reimbursable" arrangement for both Argentina and the United Kingdom .

Technological dependence on Britain's historical ally is a strategic capitulation by design:

Conclusion: Multidimensional debt

The purchase of the missiles for almost $400 million is not part of a National Defense plan designed to protect usurped territory. It is the culmination of a multidimensional and coordinated debt scheme .

1.    Internal operational capacity is destroyed by emptying basic operating budgets and eroding the salaries of career officers.

2.    Control and patrolling of the Argentine Sea is ceded to the Southern Command under the figure of "common spaces" (Program 333).

3.    The state's scarce dollars are channeled to Pentagon contractors to buy conditional weaponry that can never be used to defend sovereignty against NATO partners.

Argentina is not rearming; it is going into debt to finance the American military industry in exchange for an arsenal with a political and technological expiration date.

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