Financial scares and political expediency will tip the balance over one of the thorniest national security projects of the last decade: the renewal of Colombia’s air defense fleet.
Several experts have stated on multiple occasions that the Kfir combat aircraft, purchased from Israel in 1987 and 2009, and repowered to the point of not being able to, will complete their useful life cycle in 2023, becoming a risk for pilots and communities that fly over. .
Since 2019, the Ministry of Defense has had four offers from companies from different countries to progressively replace, with between 12 and 36 aircraft, its “Air Superiority Squadron”: the F-16 (USA), SAAB Gripen (Sweden) aircraft. , Eurofighter Typhoon (Spain, UK and Germany) and Rafale (France).
In the government of Iván Duque, according to sources close to the subject, there were advanced conversations to acquire 24 units of F-16, manufactured by the firm Lockheed Martin, for a value of around US4,500 million. But the covid-19 pandemic arrived with its financial crisis, and Casa de Nariño had no way to justify that purchase in a country with more pressing social and economic needs.
The purchase of aircraft for the Police and for the transport of troops and supplies of the FAC was also halted. The issue even became politicized, when the then president-elect Gustavo Petro trilled on June 22: “Every plane that is bought for public institutions in these weeks is sold again. I ask President Duque to suspend these purchases.”
Now the responsibility of not leaving the nation’s air sovereignty defenseless falls to Petro, with an equally complex financial panorama.
With an inflation expectation for 2023 of 7.5%, according to the Bank of the Republic; ghosts of global economic recession; and a tax reform that will punish Colombians’ pockets even more, it will not be easy to allocate a multi-million dollar figure for aircraft.
However, nothing is ruled out and the French seem to have taken the lead in the approaches.
Erich Saumeth, a defense and security analyst and correspondent for the Infodefensa.com portal, indicated that there was a key meeting last month, when Petro visited his counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Paris. The appointment was attended by Éric Trappier, president of Dassault Aviation, the company that manufactures the Rafale.
There an important push was given to the French proposal. Despite the fact that it is a wonderful – and expensive – aircraft, the French have the sympathy of Petro in their favor, above the Americans.
The Head of State graduated in Belgium from the University of Leuven, which is French-speaking, and his children studied at the French Lycée. “He is a Francophile”, in the words of Saumeth ”, and with Macron there are common political projects, such as support for the talks between the Nicolás Maduro regime and the Venezuelan opposition.
At the moment, the prices of the offer or the quantities and model of the aircraft are not known. EL COLOMBIANO consulted the Ministry of Defense and the Air Force, an institution that stated that it was “not authorized to speak” about the matter.
Even so, sources from the General Command of the FF.MM. They indicated that this is an urgent matter, which cannot be postponed any longer.