It was almost exactly a year ago that I wrote a piece in this paper about Buenos Aires being in talks with Vladimir Putin to secure 12 Sukhoi Su-24 "Fencer" bombers, capable of reaching Port Stanley; a clear and aggressive message. That was abandoned. Argentina could not afford it. They opted for a Chinese solution. This was also abandoned due to cost concerns.

In August 2015, the Argentine air force retired its Mirage fighters, with only a handful of them even flyable. The problems don’t stop there: their submarine crews, despite benefiting from a recent upgrade, need at least 190 days of immersion practice, and in 2014 only spent 19 hours submerged. Their four destroyers face a similar situation; they don’t have any weaponry.

Argentine ground forces rarely have the resources for training and are vastly under equipped, their kit dates back to the 70s and is in very short supply.