How come Argentina doesn't have a strong defense industry like France does?

[Superboy]

Argentina, area more than 4 times that of France (including French Guiana), population over 40 million, high percentage over 95% white people, Romance language like French. Why Argentina cannot develop things like Rafale, Leclerc, Scorpene?

 

[GDan]

You're surprised a country whose entire military history consists of a handful of skirmishes doesn't have a defence industry equal to one that has over a thousand years of war and conquest under its belt? People build weapons because they think they'll need them, not because they're white and speak a certain language.

 

[Superboy]

You're surprised a country whose entire military history consists of a handful of skirmishes doesn't have a defence industry equal to one that has over a thousand years of war and conquest under its belt? People build weapons because they think they'll need them, not because they're white and speak a certain language.

Argentina has territorial dispute with Britain over the Falklands. Doesn't Argentina need a powerful military to fight Britain?

 

[GDan]

Argentina has only attacked Britain once over the course of the 180 year spat over the Falklands, and that was a little ten week scuffle designed to distract the public from the fact that the military junta didn't have a damn clue how to run a country. In other words, out of all the time Argentina has been moping about those islands, they've only spent one tenth of one percent of it actually fighting with the UK. Unless Argentina decides it wants to do something monumentally stupid again, it doesn't need it.

 

[Ulysses]

Argentina is a 3rd world nation. It first needs an economy before military

 

[anonymus]

How come Argentina doesn't have a strong defence industry like France does? What a stupid question is this!

Argentina for past 40 years has been ruled by socialist despots whose economic competence is less than that of a bean counting monkey.Should one be amazed that a country whose past three generations are stumbling out from one economic crisis into another does not has a decent defence industry?

 

[Ulysses]

Argentina has been, until a few years ago, technologically backward. The government favored mining, agriculture, and heavy industry. The Peronist parties, along with most of the leftists, were anti-technology.

Japan, a tiny country with almost no natural resources, got into light manufacturing, computers, electronics, and used robots to manufacture automobiles. Technology made them an "economic miracle." Technology is also an easier industry to relocate, update, maintain, etc.

The tools and machines needed to manufacture a PC are dirt cheap compared to an oil drilling program or a shipbuilding operation.

Argentina, like Italy and South Africa, is not as up-to-date as it could be.