Defense industry of Argentina

The first major steps to establish a defense industry were made during the Second World War and they received a boost during the 1970s after the United States imposed an arms embargo due to human rights violations.

CITEFA still is the government agency responsible for the development of military technology having designed weapons such as the 155mm artillery gun, the Mathogo wire-guided anti-tank missile and the Pampero Multiple Launcher System in the past.

The 1990s, as with the rest of the national economy, saw a great reduction of state sponsored military programs; so the Army bought all kind of things such as the PASGT helmets on the open market.

The Combat Engineers Battalion 601 (Spanish: Batallon de Ingenieros 601) has also designed and built several models of water purification plants which had been deployed as humanitarian aid to Bolivia, Peru, Haiti and Chile in recent years.

A program to build four TR-1700 class submarines in Buenos Aires was cancelled by the Carlos Menem administration in the 1990s when the Domecq Garcia shipyard was shut down having two hulls about half completed.

[citation needed] In 1927, the Fabrica Militar de Aviones (FMA) was established, which in 1947 developed and built the first jet combat aircraft of Latin America: the Pulqui I; its most famous designs are the IA-58 Pucará and the IA-63 Pampa.

However, after the Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de Malvinas) the military approved development of the Condor missile which was later canceled due to political pressure from the United States.

In 2009 they successfully tested the Gradicom rocket, whose booster was entirely developed by Argentine scientists and engineers[5][6] for both military and civilian applications at the shooting range at Serrezuela, Cordoba.

[7] Currently, CONAE, the National Commission for Space Activities, is developing a multistage liquid propellant rocket called Tronador II to be used for satellite launching.