Within the framework of the modification of the General Budget of the National Administration for the Year 2022 decreed by the Executive Power, it was learned that the Argentine Army plans to increase its surveillance, reconnaissance and intelligence capabilities with the acquisition of five Diamond aircraft that will be assigned to the 601 Combat Support Aviation Battalion.The information is derived from Annex 2 of the aforementioned DNU, entitled "Acquisitions of Goods and Services with incidence in Future Exercises", in which it is also mentioned that the total cost of the purchase process amounts to the sum of $ 4,250,000,000 million pesos, of which $850,000,000 will be accrued during 2022.It is worth remembering that the Army Aviation was able to incorporate three Diamond DA42 Twin Star, aircraft that arrived in the country in 2016, these being the AE-043 (N/S 42AC005), the AE-044 (N/S 42AC031) and the AE-045 (S/N 42AC057).Due to various technical and budgetary issues, the Diamonds would almost never operate, being part of an exchange carried out in 2018 between Army Aviation and the Argentine National Gendarmerie, a process in which the latter force made its Bell UH- 1H Huey II GN-932 (S/N 73-21784) and GN-933 (S/N 67-17703).The latest news regarding the Diamond DA42 was in March 2021, when from the Military Zone we reported that «... the Inter-administrative Agreement “Specific agreement between the Argentine Aircraft Factory 'BRIG.SAN MARTÍN' SA and the Ministry of Security of the Nation for the return to service of the Diamond DA-42 Twin Star aircraft» finally received the respective contractual and budgetary authorizations from the authorities of the Ministry of Security.The initial amount of the contract approved in October 2020 amounted to the sum of USD 1,777,244 dollars…”.The work to be carried out by FAdeA included the fine-tuning as well as the installation in one of the aircraft of a multi-sensor gyro-stabilized system for surveillance FV-300 Series produced by the Cordoba-based company FixView.Although further details regarding the model to select as well as the sensor package have not yet been disclosed, the Austrian company Diamond currently offers two platforms: The DA42 MPP Guardian (based on the Twin Star two-seater) and the DA62 MPP.Both models offer the possibility of being configured and equipped according to customer requirements, being able to carry various pods and fairings as well as EO/IR systems, satellite communications, among others.If its purchase materializes, it would be a notable increase in the Army's ISR capabilities.Featured Image: Diamond DA42 MPP Guardian.Credit: Diamond AircraftThis site uses Akismet to reduce spam.Learn how your comment data is processed.Enter your email to subscribe to ZM and receive notifications of new posts.Email address