Argentine defense industry
The Argentine defense industry has developed, over the years, different programs to improve the armed forces 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. The politics of privatization carried out during the 1990s virtually eliminated domestic military production, but many factories were reopened during the last years.
In 1945, the Argentine Army designed and built its first tank: the Nahuel; and the first jeep: Ñandú. Since then, the state-owned complex Fabricaciones Militares, has traditionally supplied the Army with most of its equipment from uniforms and helmets right through to the TAM (tank) family. Weapons such as the Browning pistol, FN FAL, FN MAG etc. were licence built by the Domingo Matheu factory or developed locally as the FARA 83 rifle. 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. After the 2001 economic crisis, the government encouraged import substitution and local items are being produced again. A boost was given to the development of UAV vehicles such as the Lipánpicture. The Argentine Army Aviation Maintenance Battalion at Campo de Mayo begun the conversion of the UH-1H Huey fleet into the Huey II variant and the Army sponsored local builder Cicaré to build the CH-14 Aguilucho scout helicopter. 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.
...
Wikipedia