Trump sells Argentina Black Hawk helicopters after Falklands spat

The State Department has announced a deal to sell four UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters and related equipment to Argentina for $140 million.

Peter Lamelas, U.S. Ambassador to Argentina, announced the sale on X, writing: “Argentina will receive refurbished Black Hawk helicopters in staggered deliveries, starting with four units, to strengthen defense and respond to emergencies.

“It’s not just equipment: it’s arriving on time and saving lives. We continue working alongside Argentina to help build a stronger and safer country.”

An accompanying statement from the State Department explained: “This proposed sale will support the foreign policy goals and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a major non-NATO ally that is a force for political stability and economic progress in South America.

“The proposed sale will improve Argentina’s capability to meet current and future threats by providing the additional capacity to conduct border security, counter-transnational crime, and humanitarian assistance/disaster response.”

The statement added that the deal “will not alter the basic military balance in the region” or have an “adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness”.

The helicopters will be supplied by Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin subsidiary, which provides Marine One choppers to the White House.

The company is currently paying for the new $6 million helipad being built at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as a friendly gesture after the exhaust vents on its latest model scorched the grass on the presidential lawn, upsetting Trump.

The deal might raise eyebrows given that Trump recently suggested he would not support the U.K. in a sovereignty dispute with Argentina over the Falkland Islands, the two sides last fighting a 74-day war over the archipelago in 1982.

“Your country was not there to help me,” he huffed to GB News last week, complaining that Britain did not join in with the U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran earlier this year.

Trump’s attacks on Tehran resulted in a nearly seven month-long war that he has been unable to end and which has driven up global oil prices.

The president has enjoyed friendly relations with Argentina’s President Javier Milei, a radical libertarian, for several years, with the latter visiting him at the White House and addressing CPAC.

The two bear-hugged at the February 2024 instalment of the conservative convention, at which Trump said of his counterpart: “He’s a great gentleman... He said ‘I am MAGA,’ then I realized these are the few [who] can really do it. We’ll make Argentina great again.”

In October 2025, with Milei facing tough midterm elections, the Trump administration swooped in to prop up Argentina’s collapsing currency by buying up pesos and agreeing a $20 billion credit swap line with the country’s central bank, which it repaid in January, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Trump also floated the idea of buying Argentinian beef last year in order to bring down domestic prices and recently claimed to have got hold of 300,000 metric tons of the meat – angering U.S. ranchers and Republican senators in rural states – but would not reveal its point of origin.