In Argentina, the Argentine military’s primary responsibilities are territorial defense and protecting the country’s sovereignty; other duties include border security, countering narcotics trafficking, and other internal missions, such as disaster response and infrastructure development; it also conducts support operations in Antarctica to promote an active presence in areas of national territory that are sparsely populated; the military participates in both bilateral and multinational training exercises and supports UN peacekeeping operations

Argentina participates in the Tripartite Command, an interagency security mechanism created by Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay to exchange information and combat transnational threats, including terrorism, in the Tri-Border Area; in addition, Argentina and Chile have a joint peacekeeping force known as the Combined Southern Cross Peacekeeping Force (FPC), designed to be made available to the UN; the FPC is made up of infantry, command and control, air, naval, and logistics support elements; Argentina has Major Non-NATO Ally (MNNA) status with the US, a designation under US law that provides foreign partners with certain benefits in the areas of defense trade and security cooperation

the Army and Navy were both created in 1810 during the Argentine War of Independence, while the Air Force was established in 1945; the military conducted coups d'état in 1930, 1943, 1955, 1962, 1966, and 1976; the 1976 coup, aka the "National Reorganization Process," marked the beginning of the so-called "Dirty War," a period of state-sponsored terrorism that saw the deaths or disappearances of thousands of Argentinians; the defeat in the 1983 Falklands War led to the downfall of the military junta (2024)