Argentina seeks helicopters
Both the Fuerza Aérea Argentina (FAA, Argentine Air Force) and the Comando de Aviación Naval Argentina (COAN, Argentine Naval Aviation Command) are looking for options. To begin with the latter, the Defense minister signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) to acquire eight Leonardo AW109 helicopters. COAN is looking for a replacement for its ship bourne AS555-fleet. They require a helicopter that can carry more passengers, yet is still compact.
The Air Force is struggling with their Mi-171. They are crucial to the Antarctic mission and a replacement is being studied. To this end, a Letter of Request (LoR) was sent to the USA to possibly acquire some surplus CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters. You may recall that they originally requested the CH-47F. Another LoR was posted to get some redundant UH-1Ns to boost their existing fleet.
With the recent LoI for twelve H215s, there will be a significant boost in the helicopter fleets of the armed forces. Obviously, there are a lot of intentions to buy military equipment recently. We have to wait and see if all programmes will go ahead and come to fruition.
Picture: an Ejército Argentino (Argentine Army Aviation Command) A109 from the past