Probably but the issue is that the final lap of life of the venerables Colombian Kfirs will be at the end of 2023. So now the goverment must find the founds to buy almost two squadrons of fighter jets in order to protect the colombian air space. Since the new goverment took power in august the race for a new fighter restarted again. The candidates are the Eurofighter Typhoon, The French Rafale, The Sweden Gripen and the northamerican F-16 Block 70.
good morning, cordial greeting, apologies for the pastoral that I will write below, but it is better that you find out what the matter is:
First of all, there is NO money, so they can offer you "the gold and the Moors", but we cannot have any illusions with expensive aircraft.
Second, the little money that there is, it is necessary to make it pay and that the aircraft can be replaced, with this premise, some of the competition are leaving.
Third, would Colombia be able to maintain a twin engine? of course NO, 2 of the competition come out right there.
Fourth, would you be safe when buying an aircraft that is only used in 3 air forces officially and a fourth (or fifth) that have it leased? I would think more than twice before making the decision.
Finally, although it is true that Sweden has offered technology transfer if its product is purchased, does Colombia have the infrastructure or the money to install it and thus be able to assemble (assemble, yes gentlemen) the aircraft? Of course NO, if the investment is made, the money allocated to the aircraft would only remain in the assembly plant and ZERO aircraft...and not to mention the restrictions on the use of the aircraft, the lack of availability of components, the TOTAL change of the logistics line, in addition to learning a new language, since it is better to receive instruction in the native language...
In that order of ideas, I, as a personal opinion, would prefer a commercial aircraft, which I think makes up 30% of the fighter fleet worldwide, from which I can obtain spare parts, technical assistance, maintenance, weapons, almost in 30 different countries, I am going to be interoperable with NATO and other air forces that use it, if we used common sense, the serious decision would be F-16 in a not very old block to allow us to update ourselves and be able to continue using Kfir weapons with the help of Israel.
Thank you very much for your attention and apologies for such a long text.