Investments for the Colombian Military Forces: truths and intentional misinformation

Within the process of renewal of the Colombian fighter fleet, recently promoted by the new presidential administration of this country, a series of opinions have been presented both by members (of the reserve) of the Air Force, analysts, experts and also of new experts (former defense ministers) about how it has developed, particularly during the last two months of 2022 and, with the exception of ex-military personnel, based almost entirely on information revealed by Infodefensa.com.

However, new voices have recently emerged -disseminated in the national media-, in which this process is questioned, but based on premises that do not correspond to the reality of the country, ignoring projects carried out by the Armed Forces and proposing new paradigms totally alien to the experiences and lessons that high-intensity conventional conflicts are currently generating.

In this sense, the modernization of combat aircraft is questioned, stating that there would be no “circumstances that rush definitions on this matter”, ignoring that this process has been carried out rigorously and sustainably for 12 years, since 2011, without any of the previous governments took the decision to materialize this program.

REPEATED VIOLATIONS OF COLOMBIAN SOVEREIGNTY

It is also objected that the alleged “strategic threat” (Venezuela) is real, forgetting that only during the period between 1992 and 2018 there were -at least- 21 documented complaints of violations of Colombian airspace by the Venezuelan Bolivarian Military Aviation (AMBV), figures that show that this behavior is clearly far from being casual and, on the contrary, the product of a state policy.

In addition, this position omits that, through public pronouncements, members of the Venezuelan government have revealed apparent plans that involve the destruction, by coordinated AMBV air strikes, of Colombian civilian infrastructure (bridges) and civilian targets (Bogotá), based on the apparent operational superiority of the Armed Forces of that country and without any justification.

They also hold these opinions contrary to investment in the Military Forces, that the attention of the government is directed to the purchase of aircraft only, leaving out submarines, corvettes, tanks, APCs, drones or anti-aircraft batteries, demonstrating these statements a total ignorance of the modernization or purchase processes carried out not only in recent years but also in recent weeks.

Just for being didactic, in the case of submarines, the Colombian Navy (ARC) advanced processes of modernization of its U209/1200 (oceanic) and purchase of U206A (coastal) a few years ago and, in the case of corvettes (now light frigates) the force upgraded its four units to the FS 1500 class.

Regarding armored vehicles (APC) and tanks, the Army has purchased vehicles of the Textron Marine & Land Systems (TM&LS) M1117 4×4 AFV types, as well as GDLS LAV-III, not to mention the domestically manufactured Armor International Hunter TR types. -12 and Hunter XL and the Titan-C IDS (TROP), anticipating a process for US$305 million on December 30, for the purchase of additional equipment, as well as a self-propelled artillery system for US$102 million.

In the case of UAVs, the Colombian Aeronautical Industry Corporation (CIAC) has developed and sold its Coelum and Quimbaya prototypes to the Armed Forces, with the Air Force, the ARC, the Police and the Army making additional purchases of this type of system from American, Israeli, Spanish and Chinese suppliers.

And in the case of anti-aircraft batteries, also last December 30, the purchase of a system of these characteristics of the IAI Barak-MX type was completed.

PREFERENCE FOR THE AIR FORCE?

In the same way, these opinion articles question the government for “oversizing the Air Force“, ignoring that last September, the new Colombian government signed the design and purchase of the first Frigate (PES) for the Navy, in a process that will strengthen the national defense industry, since the national shipyard Cotecmar will actively participate in it, which was also commissioned to manufacture a new OPV-93C and a new logistics support vessel 6042: an investment of US$435 million.

Along these lines, on December 30, contracts were signed for the Army for US$407 million and for the FAC (Sisdan and Electronic Warfare) for US$223 million, without counting the almost US$20 million paid for three aircraft for the National Police. Currently, the preparation of a new Conpes, which includes the necessary values for the renovation of the combat fighters, for a second frigate and a second logistics ship, adding all this investments for US$1.065 billion.

These analyzes also raise new paradigms, such as the “growing irrelevance of combat aircraft”, which forget -perhaps on purpose- the processes that are currently being carried out for the development of precisely new aircraft, among them the FCAS programs (Germany, France, Spain), Tempest (UK, Italy, Sweden, Japan), KF-21 (South Korea), TF-X (Turkey), not to mention the SU-057 (Russia), the J-20 (China) and the American F22 and F35.

Additionally, these critical voices reveal supposed figures on the final values of each of the preselected models (Rafale and Gripen), strangely excluding the costs of the F16 Block 70, valued for Colombia at US$223 million each unit, the most expensive within the shortlist.

Those opposed to investing in Defense are also unaware -or deny- the strategic challenges that the country will face in the coming decades, outlined in the analyzes of the Armed Forces and raised in the Comprehensive National Defense System (Siden) by the past administration, which the current one begins to develop.

All of the above to explain the disdain of the Colombian establishment towards the defense sector and why its Armed Forces have found it so difficult to build strategic defense capabilities. The conclusions of the analysis and opinions such as those disaggregated here reflect the absolute ignorance on these issues and warn of the need to materialize the processes foreseen in the Siden. Sanity and reason clearly indicate this.

With information from Infodefensa