Latin American Military - Argentina - Ejército

Revised: February 1, 1999
Copyright © 1997-1999 by Juan Carlos Barroux R.

The Falklands/Malvinas defeat was extremely traumatic for the Argentinian Army but it brought home the full reality of the modern battlefield. As usual in these cases it is the looser who learns more and this case is not an exception.

Currently the Argentinian Army is undergoing the painful process of ending conscription and creating a fully professional force. Given the budgetary restrictions this process is moving ahead slowly. The Falklands/Malvinas conflict showed clearly that a conscript army is no longer able to face a well trained and equipped professional force, even with numerical superiority.

The Argentinian Army should emerge sometime in the next ten years as a well organised, equipped and efficient organisation able to project itself quickly, and without early warning, in external theaters, like the Patagonia or the Falklands/Malvinas areas of operations.

As part of its restructuration units are being moved from city garrisons into frontier zones with the stated goal of making them more dissuasive and the unstated goals of limiting their potential involvement in internal political matters.

It is interesting to note the high number of units garrisoned close to the northern frontier with Brasil. This would seem to indicate that the current Mercosur induced détente is not as strong as it looks and implies a continuous rivalry between these two major South American countries.

Equipment

Units

Bibliography

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