Argentina’s Rustbucket Air Force Loses A-4 Attack Jet in Crash - Pilot Killed

An A-4 Skyhawk attack jet from the Argentinian Air Force crashed during a training flight on August 5th, with the pilot found dead soon afterwards, according to an Air Force statement. The incident is currently under investigation, with the cause of the crash unknown. The A-4 jet had flown under the Fifth Villa Reynolds Air Brigade, and was one of just 22 A-4 jets in service in the country which were split between two squadrons. The A-4 is the only combat jet in Argentinian service, and no other air force in the world still operates the aircraft. The A-4 first flew in 1954, meaning it has now been operational for 66 years, and it was offered to a number of defence clients in the third world as a low end export - with higher end clients offered the more costly F-104, F-4 and other more capable aircraft which had superior air to air performances.

The crash of the A-4 comes amid a drawn out economic decline in Argentina which has seen the country’s armed forces deteriorate considerably. Where Argentina held multiple advantages against the British Royal Navy during the 1980s, at a time when Britain one of the world’s leading sea powers, today the South American state has seen its forces fall into near total obsolescence with its last fighters retired and its Navy effectively inept against modern adversaries. The country notably lost a submarine, the San Juan, in November 2017 with all hands going down with the ship due to an accident, which represented a significant blow to the Navy’s remaining war fighting capabilities. The Argentinian Air Force has on multiple occasions shown interest in acquiring foreign aircraft to upgrade its inventory, including the Russian MiG-29, Chinese J-10A and most recently the South Korean F-50, but has cancelled acquisition plans each time due to budgetary constraints. This has forced the country to keep the A-4s in service for decades longer than originally intended - the alternative being a complete loss of a combat jet aviation capability which would be costly and difficult to reestablish in future. The A-4 is likely to be retired without replacement some time in the coming decade or so, with no countries likely to provide newer aircraft as aid or at an affordable price.