TSAMTO, December 5th. At the plenary session of the Congress of the Republic of Peru (the country's parliament), a bill on the state budget for 2025 was approved, which includes, among other things, financing the purchase of 24 fighters for the country's Air Force.
As reported by Infodefensa.com, the initial draft of Peru's defense budget for 2025 is 8.89 billion. salts ($2.371 billion), which represents an increase of 2.8% compared to the budget approved for 2024.
A separate budget item of $2 billion, which will be covered by long-term domestic borrowing through the state bank Banco de la Nacion, provides financing for the first phase of the project to purchase 24 fighters out of a total amount of $ 3.5 billion. This includes a package of weapons, spare parts and additional services that the Peruvian Air Force must coordinate with the winner of the tender.
As already reported by CAMTO, the Ministry of Defense of Peru received preliminary proposals from three manufacturers included in the short list of applicants for the upcoming tender for the purchase of 24 multi-purpose fighters in mid-November this year. According to the statement of the Chief of Staff (Commander) The Peruvian Air Force of General Carlos Enrique Chavez Cateriano, initially the Peruvian Air Force considered proposals from 11 manufacturers, from which a "shortlist" of applicants was compiled.
In total, according to the results of the international tender for the Peruvian Air Force, it is planned to purchase 20 single-seat and 4 two-seat fighters. The short list of applicants includes the F-16V Block.70 of the American corporation Lockheed Martin, JAS-39 Gripen of the Swedish Saab and Rafale F4 of the French Dassault Aviation.
The acquisition budget is tentatively estimated at $3.5 billion. The purchase is planned to be financed by loans from the national bank Banco de la Nacion and the placement of sovereign bonds. It is assumed that about $2 billion will be allocated to finance the project in the 2025 budget (the first batch of 12 aircraft), and the remaining amount will be allocated in the 2026 budget.
The Peruvian Air Force Command expects to receive the first aircraft in mid-2026. The delivery package will also include an air trainer, manuals and technical documentation, weapons, logistics packages and training. The acquisition will include the contractor's implementation of offset programs involving the transfer of a number of technologies and the organization of industrial cooperation in the aviation and aerospace sectors.
It is noteworthy that Infodefensa.com He also names a fourth applicant, who, for some reason, is not indicated in the "shortlist", but in recent months he has constantly appeared in the media as the main applicant for the supply. This contender is South Korea's Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) with the KF-21 fighter jet.
For some reason, the aircraft is not on the "shortlist", although so far South Korean companies have won almost all tenders of the Peruvian Armed Forces for the purchase of many types of weapons, ranging from armored vehicles to combat and auxiliary ships.
Back in July of this year, it was reported that the Peruvian Air Force had included three international manufacturers in the "shortlist". Moreover, the French Rafale and the South Korean KF-21 were named the leading contenders at that time, and the American F-16 closed the top three.
It seems that the latest articles covering up the situation with the KAI proposal are commissioned to counteract the South Korean defense industry, which has recently been leading in the field of defense cooperation in the Latin American market.
Currently, the Peruvian Air Force is armed with Mirage-2000P/DP fighters, purchased new in France in 1982 and adopted in 1986-1987, up to 19 MiG-29s of various versions, as well as an unknown number of airworthy Su-25s.
