Argentina launches new rockets and buys four new Black Hawk helicopters from Trump

Argentina tested two experimental rockets and unveiled four new American Black Hawk helicopters this week amid a wider push to modernise the military.

The air force launched its MET 4-SO “Pollux” sounding rockets in Mar Chiquita, Buenos Aires province on Thursday, two days after trials with the MET 3-SO “Castor”.

“Under President Javier Milei, Argentina is moving towards a future of development and innovation, adding its own capabilities in the aerospace field,” the ministry of defence said on Friday.

The ministry also announced the acquisition of four UH-60L Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters that would form the basis of a new “tactical mobility capability” for the army.

Argentina delegations had been working “rigorously” in talks in the United States to secure the helicopters at a cut rate, a statement said.

US ambassador Peter Lamelas said the deal marked a “concrete step in our defense cooperation” with Argentina after the agreement was signed in the Malvinas Islands Hall in the capital.

“These aircraft will enable Argentina to strengthen its border security, combat transnational crime, and assist its people in emergencies and disasters,” he said in a post on social media.

“More capabilities for Argentina. More security for the hemisphere.”

An expanded defence partnership with the US has helped Argentina to undertake a major transformation of its armed forces, more than four decades after suffering a resounding defeat to the British over the contested Falkland Islands in 1982.

Argentine president Milei last month ruled out taking military action to take the islands from Britain, but has reignited tensions in recent months by claiming sovereignty.

“We do not believe in military solutions. We do not believe in military solutions. We do not believe in military solutions,” he stressed in comments to The Telegraph.

But he added: “We are going to get the Falklands back by diplomatic means. The Falklands are Argentinian, legally, historically and geographically.”

Milei was emboldened after US president Trump suggested he could reconsider Washington’s neutral stance on the sovereignty of the islands.

Trump also questioned the UK’s ability to defend the territory due to its domestic problems with immigration and energy.

Buenos Aires still only spends around 0.8 per cent of GDP on defence, worth around $3.9bn, but US trade has helped expand the military in recent years.

The government in 2024 agreed to buy 24 second-hand US-made F-16 fighter jets from Denmark for $300 million, with the first six arriving in December last year.

Milei framed the deal as the most important military acquisition in 50 years, and the ministry of defence said the jets – expected in batches of six each year until 2028 – would form the backbone of the air force.

Argentina’s sounding rockets are used to take measurements and test new technologies in suborbital flight.

Buenos Aires has been developing its domestically built engines, avionics and recovery at sea since tests last year.

The latest tests saw the Castor adopt a lighter engine and nozzle, and recovery teams try to recover the payload of the Pollux at sea.

A light plane, aerial drones and sea vessels were used in the recovery, according to the ministry of defence, which shared images of personnel apparently bringing salvaged rocket parts back to land.