Argentina is turning to adversary air services provider Top Aces for help in standing up the country’s newly acquired fleet of fighter jets.
On 16 March, Top Aces revealed it has signed a $33 million, multi-year deal with Buenos Aires to offer basic and advanced pilot training on the Lockheed Martin F-16 to the Argentine air force (FAA).
The programme will include initial qualification on the single-engined jet, as well as certification on more advanced skills including mission qualification, flight lead and instructor pilot status.
The contract with Top Aces covers two years of training for an initial cohort of pilots, with an option to extend for a third year of service.
“Our instructor pilots bring extensive US Air Force (USAF) backgrounds, each with more than 20 years of service and an average of over 2,300 flight hours in the F-16,” says Steve Haase, US Group president at Top Aces.
“Having built a fully operational F-16 enterprise from the ground up, Top Aces is uniquely positioned to train the next generation of Argentine combat leaders on their new and highly capable F-16 platform,” he adds.
The training contract will be managed by the USAF’s Security Assistance Training Squadron.
Founded in Montreal by two former Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilots, Top Aces is best known as a provider of contract adversary air services using a fleet of more than 150 tactical aircraft that includes the Douglas A-4N Skyhawk and Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet.
The company is also the only commercial operator of fourth-generation fighter aircraft anywhere in the world, with a contingent of privately-owned F-16A/Bs acquired secondhand from Israel.
Fleets data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, suggests Top Aces has 11 F-16As and a single two-seat F-16B in active service, with another 12 jets in storage.
Those jets, along with the company’s A-4N fleet, are outfitted with the proprietary Advanced Aggressor Mission System (AAMS), which allows Top Aces’ aircraft to replicate fifth-generation threats for adversary air missions.
The Top Aces F-16 fleet currently provides dedicated aggressor air support to USAF squadrons flying the Lockheed F-35A stealth fighter.
For the Argentine contract, Top Aces pilots will use the FAA’s own aircraft, which are being acquired secondhand from Denmark.
An initial tranche of six F-16s were transferred to Argentina from the Royal Danish Air Force in December, including four F-16Bs and two single-seat F-16As. Argentina will ultimately receive a total of 24 jets from Denmark over the next three years.
Top Aces says using Argentina’s own aircraft for F-16 flight training will ensure FAA pilots get instruction tailored to their specific mission requirements and aircraft blocks.
Company instructor pilots will deploy to Argentina as part of the contract.
The FAA had been without a supersonic fighter capability since the retirement of its last Dassault Mirage IIIs in 2015 – the result of economic sanctions levied against Argentina following the country’s defeat by the UK in the 1982 Falklands War.
Argentina’s paltry fighter inventory includes 23 aged A-4 subsonic light-attack jets and 11 indigenously produced IA-63 Pampa III trainers, assembled by Fabrica Argentina de Aviones.
That situation changed in 2023 when US regulators in Washington, DC approved a third-party sale of American-made F-16s from Denmark to Argentina.
That change to longstanding policy was prompted by flirtations between Buenos Aires and China over the sale of JF-17 fighters – a joint product of China’s Chengdu Aircraft Corporation and the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex.
London’s approval was not required for the transfer, as the F-16 uses the American-made Collins Aerospace ACES II ejection seat.
The presence of UK-sourced components, including Martin-Baker ejection seats and BAE Systems avionics, had given London veto power over the sale of many modern fighter types over the years.
Buenos Aires has heralded the restoration of a supersonic fighter capability as a “historic transformation of national defence”.
An unfinalised $1 billion Foreign Military Sales request approved in 2024 included Raytheon AIM-120C-8 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles, Mk 82 226kg (500lb) general purpose bombs and Raytheon GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bombs for Argentina.
