Argentine Army
The
Argentine Army (
Ejército Argentino, EA) is the
land armed force branch of the
Argentine military and the senior military service of the country.
The Army's official foundation date is May 29th, 1810 (celebrated in Argentina as the
Army Day), four days after the Spanish colonial administration in Buenos Aires was overthrown. The new national army was formed out of several pre-existent colonial militia units and locally-manned regiments (most notoriously the
Patricios Regiment, which to this date is still an active Army unit). These units had previously fought the British during their attempts to take over Buenos Aires in 1806 and 1807.
Several armed expeditions were sent to the Upper Peru (now
Bolivia),
Paraguay,
Uruguay and
Chile to fight Spanish forces and secure Argentina's newly-gained
independence. The most famous of these expeditions was the one led by General
José de San Martín, who led a 5000-man army across the
Andes Mountains to expel the Spaniards from Chile and later from Perú. While the other expeditions failed in their goal of bringing all the dependencies of the former
Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata under the new government in Buenos Aires, they prevented the Spaniards from crushing the rebellion.
During the civil wars of the first half of the
19th Century the Argentine Army became fractionalized under the leadership of the so-called
caudillos ("leaders" or "warlords"), provincial leaders who waged a war against the centralist Buenos Aires administration. However, the Army was briefly re-unified during the war with the
Brazilian Empire. (1824-1827).
It was only with the establishment of a Constitution (which explicitly forbade the provinces from maintaining military forces of their own) and a national government recognized by all the provinces that the Army became a single force, absorbing the older provincial militias. The Army went on to fight the
War of the Triple Alliance in the 1860s together with Brazil and Uruguay against Paraguay. Until the 1982
Malvinas War, this was the last time that Argentine troops fought against another nation. After the war, the Army became involved in Argentina's
Conquista del Desierto ("Conquest of the Desert"): the campaign to occupy
Patagonia and root out the natives, who conducted looting raids throughout the country.
Between 1880 and 1930 the Army sought to become a professional force without active involvement in politics, even though many a political figure -President
Julio Argentino Roca, for example- benefitted from a past military career. The Army prevented the fall of the government in a number of
Radical-led uprisings. Meanwhile, the military in general and the Army in particular contributed to develop Argentina's unsettled southern frontier and its incipient industrial complex.
In 1930, a small group of Army forces (not more than 600 troops) deposed President
Hipólito Yrigoyen without much response from the rest of the Army and the
Navy. This was the beginning of a long history of political intervention by the military. Another coup, in 1943, was responsible for bringing an obscure colonel into the political limelight:
Juan Perón.
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A grenadier of the Argentine Army |
Even though Perón had the support of the military during his two consecutive terms of office (1946-1952 and 1952-1955), his increasingly repressive government alienated many officers, which finally led to a military uprising which overthrew him in September of 1955. Between 1955 and 1973 the Army and the rest of the military became vigilant over the possible re-emergence of Peronism in the political arena, which led to two new coups against elected Presidents in 1962 (deposing
Arturo Frondizi) and 1966 (ousting
Arturo Illia). It should be noted that political infighting eroded discipline and cohesion within the army, to the extent that there was armed fighting between contending military units during the early 1960s.
The military government which ruled Argentina between 1966 and 1973 saw the growing activities of terrorist groups such as
Montoneros and the
ERP. These groups, which ran unchecked by the following civilian government (1973-1976), were invoked as a reason for the 1976 military coup which ousted
María Estela Martínez de Perón.
The new military government, known as the
Proceso de Reorganización Nacional, put a stop to the guerrilla's campaigns, but soon it became known that extremely violent methods and severe violations of human rights had taken place, in what became known as the
Dirty War.
Batallón de Inteligencia 601 became infamous during this period. This special unit also participated in the training of Nicaraguan
Contras with US assistance, among whom
John Negroponte This, coupled with the defeat in the
Falklands War, led the military to relinquish power to a civilian government in 1983.
During the
Alfonsín administration, the Army was rocked by uprisings and internal infighting, primarily due to the new government's stance against the events of the
Dirty War. It would not be until 1990, when the last military uprising in Argentine history was crushed, that the political conflict within the Army finally subsided.
The last twenty years saw a much-downsized Army struggling with severe budget cuts, which impaired its fighting ability and reduced its political clout. Successive governments and Army leaders embarked upon a program of re-estructuring the Argentine military to the new situation, focusing more on peacekeeping missions and domestic relief. The murder of Conscript
Omar Carrasco in 1994 led to the abolition of mandatory military service in Argentina, thus transforming the Argentine military services into professional, all-volunteer forces.
|
A soldier of the Argentine Army |
Under the
Argentine Constitution, the
President is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, exercising his command authority through the Minister of Defense.
The Army is headed by a Chief of the General Staff directly appointed and removed by the President. The General Staff of the Army (
Estado Mayor General del Ejército) includes the Chief of Staff, a Deputy Chief of the General Staff and the heads of the General Staff's six departments (
Jefaturas). The current departments of the General Staff (known also by their Roman numerals) are:
* Personnel (
Jefatura I - Personal)
* Intelligence (
Jefatura II - Inteligencia)
* Operations (
Jefatura III - Operaciones)
* Materiel (
Jefatura IV - Material)
* Finance (
Jefatura V - Finanzas)
* Welfare (
Jefatura VI - Bienestar)The General Staff also includes the General Inspectorate and the General Secretariat.
There are also a number of Commands and Directorates responsible for development and implementation of policies within the Army regarding technological and operational areas and handle administrative affairs. As of 2005 these include the following:
* Communications and Computer Command (
Comando de Comunicación e Informática)
* Education and Doctrine Command (
Comando de Educación y Doctrina)
* Engineers Command (
Comando de Ingenieros)
* Remount and Veterinary Command (
Comando de Remonta y Veterinaria)
* Health Command (
Comando de Sanidad)
* Materiel Logistics Command (
Comando Logístico de Material)
* Army Historical Directorate (
Dirección de Asuntos Históricos del Ejército)
* Research, Development and Production Directorate (
Dirección de Investigación, Desarrollo y Producción)
* Planning Directorate (
Dirección de Planeamiento)
* Transportation Directorate (
Dirección de Transporte)
* General Staff Directorate (
Dirección del Estado Mayor General del Ejército)
The current Chief of the General Staff (since May 2003) is Lieutenant General Roberto Bendini.
The Army is structured into three corps, to which are attached varying numbers of
brigades of armor, mechanized forces and infantry. Each brigade is in turn composed of several
regiments of each combat arm, plus several company-sized support units. Each regiment or artillery group is actually more of a reinforced battalion, and the regimental designator is a legacy of the
Argentine War of Independence, during which the Argentine Army fielded traditional regiment-sized units. A major problem of today's Army is that most of its combat units are understrength in manpower due to budgetary limitations; the current Table of Organization and Equipment being established at a time during which the Army could rely on larger budgets and conscripted troops. Current plans call for expansion of combat units until all combat units are again full-strength, as soon as budget constraints allow for the induction of new volunteers.
Insignia for all ranks except Volunteers is worn on shoulder boards. Ranks from Senior Colonel onwards use red-trimmed shoulderboards and the suns denoting rank are gold-braid; the suns on other officers' shoulder boards are metallic. Senior Colonels and Generals also have golden wreath leaves on their coat lapels.
The rank insignia for Volunteers 1st Class, 2nd Class and Brevet 2nd Class is worn on the sleeves. Collar versions of the ranks are used in combat uniforms.
Officers* honorary rank for long-serving colonels who have not been promoted to
Brigade General; the rank is junior to Brigade General but senior to Colonel.
Non-commissioned Officers and Enlisted Men| Argentinian Rank | Translation | | Suboficial Mayor | Senior Sub-Officer, Sub-Officer-Major |
| Suboficial Principal | Principal Sub-Officer |
| Sargento Ayudante | Staff Sergeant, Adjutant Sergeant |
| Sargento Primero | First Sergeant |
| Sargento | Sergeant |
| Cabo Primero | First Corporal |
| Cabo | Corporal |
| Voluntario Primero | First Volunteer |
| Voluntario Segundo | Second Volunteer |
| Voluntario Segundo en Comisión | Brevet Second Volunteer |
The following are estimated totals for the weapon systems of the Argentine Army in service as of 2005:
Fighting Vehicles
* 200 x
TAM medium tanks
* 100 x
SK-105 Kurassier light tanks
* 50 x
AMX-13/105 light tanks being replace by the indigenous
Patagon* 40 x
Panhard AML-90 reconnaissance vehicles
* 34 x
Mowag Piranha reconnaissance vehicles
* 105 x
VCTP infantry fighting vehicles plus variants
* 317 x
M113 armored personnel carriers plus variants (M577,M106,M548,...)
* 105 x
M9 Half-Tracks armored personnel carriers
Support Vehicles
* 800 x
Mercedez-Benz MB 1112/1113/1114
* 2000 x Mercedez-Benz
Unimog U-416/421
* 900 x Mercedez-Benz MB 230G utility vehicles
* 485 x
Ford F-100* 150 x
Isuzu Trooper* 100 x Ford
M151A2 Jeeps
* 100 x
Chevrolet M1008
* 50 x
Lohr Fiader for use by Paratrooper Brigade
* 34 x
Humvees for use in UN
peacekeeping missions
* Several others in less numbers
Artillery
* 20 x AMX
Mk F3 self-propelled 155 mm artillery
* 15 x
VCA self-propelled 155 mm artillery
* 100 x
CITEFA Model 77 155 mm artillery
* 100 x 105 mm artillery
* 360 x 120 mm mortars
* 1000? x 81 & 60 mm mortars
* 76 x 40 mm anti aircraft cannon
* 150 x 30 mm anti aircraft cannon
Aircraft
* 10 x
OV-1 Mohawk plus 10 for spares
* 3 x
Alenia G.222* 6 x
Swearingen SA-226 Merlin
* 5 x Cessna
T-41 Mescalero* 5 x Cessna
T207 Turbo-Skywagon
* 1 x
Rockwell Sabreliner 75
* 1 x
CASA C212 Aviocar * 1 x
Beechcraft Queen Air * 1 x
Cessna 180 U-17
* 1 x
Cessna Citation 500
* 37 x Bell
UH-1 Iroquois* 3 x
Super Puma for use in
Antarctica* 4 x
Agusta A109 gunships
* 3 x
Aerospatiale Lama SA-315, for
Search and rescue in
Andes Mountains* 8 x
Hiller UH-12 trainers
*
601st Commando Company*
602nd Commando Company*
601st Intelligence Battalion*
SIDE*
Official website*
Organization and equipment
