That's true, but it's balanced by what swerve said earlier. They have no serious requirement for an Exocet-like capability, their neighbours are all friendly and there isn't any realistic scenario where they'd need to fire them off.
It certainly shouldn't be a bigger priority than being able to fulfill basic QRA in my opinion. They're thinking about renting Brazilian fighters to cover the G20 summit, however this might explain the knee-jerk Etendard purchase; get something supersonic with a couple of basic IR missiles.
Multiple points to consider for this question, but it has the same result
- I believe the UK can and has blocked Gripen to Argentina? Or have said they would at least.
- Would Argentina want to be reliant on British spares for the core of their air force?
- I believe Argentina postulated having a 'no-UK' version, but that'd be horrendously expensive and Argentina would have to pay all of the costs
They're definitely up sh*t creek without a paddle considering the wide variety of avenues explored with nothing to show for it.