TSAMTO, May 21. In a statement to national media, recently appointed Colombian Finance Minister Jose Manuel Restrepo said that the country's government will definitely not allocate funds for the purchase of new fighter jets.
As reported by Aereo.jor.br with a reference to X.Restrepo, this decision is due to the fact that the replacement program of the Kfir C10/12 fighter fleet is not considered a priority at the moment.
In the opinion of Aereo.jor.br the position of the country's leadership was largely influenced by large-scale anti-government protests, which forced the government to start tax reform.
The Colombian Air Force's Kfir jet replacement program was estimated at approximately $ 3.6 billion. Such a large cost has caused sharp criticism and condemnation from a number of political parties in Colombia. The main argument of opponents of the purchase of aircraft is that the project is not of strategic importance for national security.
As previously reported by TSAMTO, the tender for the purchase of fighters was announced in 2016. The Colombian Air Force was considering buying up to 20 aircraft. The tender procedure involved the Typhoon (twin-engine) fighters of the Eurofighter consortium, the F-16V Block.70 (single-engine) of Lockheed Martin, the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet (twin-engine) of Boeing and the JAS-39 Gripen-NG (single-engine) of Saab.
In May 2019, in an interview with RIA Novosti, Anatoly Punchuk, Deputy director of the FSMTC, said that Russia is participating in the Colombian aviation tender with two types of aircraft, in particular with the MiG-29, which has already been tested by Colombian pilots.
Currently, the Colombian Air Force continues to operate a fleet of 22 Kfir C10/C12/TC12 fighters (three of them are already in reserve), including 19 single-seat and three two-seat vehicles.
