The Argentine Armed Forces have progressed with plans to acquire new portable personal weaponry.

The Argentine Armed Forces Joint Staff (EMCO) has continued to move forward with its project to procure portable individual weapons. This is confirmed by a recent technical qualification report dated 3 November 2025, which received a satisfactory formulation and assessment.

According to that technical qualification report, EMCO progressed through an initial phase of the project titled "Procurement of Portable Individual Weapons to improve the defence capability and close-combat capability of the Armed Forces, in military units across the national territory". The programme envisages an initial investment of $ 35.897.688.750 (around USD 24.5 million).

It is worth noting that, at the start of 2025, EMCO carried out a series of technical evaluations with various overseas manufacturers. During this process, pistols, carbines, rifles, 7,62mm light machine guns and 40mm grenade launchers were tested. Although no further official details were released, the candidates assessed were drawn from the United States, Europe and Israel.

For the technical evaluation in question, testing was required for 9mm pistols (with and without a suppressor), 5,56mm carbines with 14,5″ and 11,5″ barrels, 7,62mm rifles with 16″ and 14,5″ barrels, light machine guns with a long barrel and a 16″ barrel, and 40mm grenade launchers-both stand-alone and rifle-mounted.

As previously reported, an Operational Technical Evaluation was originally planned, including the receipt of equipment from the various candidates that had been invited to participate. One of the intended aims was for Argentine Armed Forces personnel to assess the weapons domestically. However, the approach would shift towards dispatching evaluation teams to the manufacturers’ countries of origin. This raised questions about the depth of the trials, given that they would not take place under local conditions and requirements-meaning Argentina’s specific geographic environments-and would not be conducted by the weapons’ potential end users.

As with the latest technical qualification report, EMCO’s previous management did not provide official information on the project’s scope, objectives or milestones. This lack of clarity, and the absence of assurances, opened the door to speculation about transparency, particularly as it was shielded behind the already outdated local notion of "military secrecy".

Favourites: EMCO and the IWI ARAD rifle family

As noted, despite EMCO offering no information at all on progress in the process, details did emerge about some of the models under consideration and, among them, the favourites-such as the IWI Arad family of rifles.

In mid-2025, sources consulted by Military Zone indicated that the Ministry of Defence was seeking to move ahead with defining an initial contract to formalise the purchase of IWI ARAD rifles. The agreement would cover the acquisition of the 5,56 × 45 mm calibre version (ARAD 5) as well as the 7,62 × 51 mm version (ARAD 7), although at the time no precise figures were provided regarding the quantities under negotiation.

That purchasing intent emerged amid a strengthening relationship between Argentina and Israel, a dynamic that also extended into the defence sphere. Over time, however, the various intended projects were put on hold-a situation that could be revisited in 2026 if the decision to proceed with the Israeli rifle remains in place.

Upgrading portable weapons across the Armed Forces is one of many long-standing requirements, given that the bulk of personnel in the Argentine Navy, Army and Air Force continue to use equipment with decades of service which, while not obsolete, is outclassed in terms of ergonomics, weight and capabilities.