Despite signing a deal to purchase Gripen-E/F fighters, Colombia plans to operate its outdated Israeli Kfir fighter jets for another year. Ironically, the country had earlier severed all its ties with the Jewish nation.
Colombia is reportedly expected to operate its aging fleet of Kfir C10/12 COA jets acquired from Israel until October 2027. The timeline is tied to Martin-Baker’s technical support for the ejection seats used in the Kfir fleet, scheduled to end next year in October 2027.
Colombia is among the last remaining users of the Kfir jets, besides Sri Lanka.
Colombia was the first in Latin America to buy the jets in the late 1980s. Under President Virgilio Barco, it signed a $200 million deal with Israel for 12 used single-seat Kfir C2s from the Israeli Air Force, along with at least one two-seat TC7 trainer.
Colombia acquired these jets primarily for immediate supersonic capability, precision ground attack against guerrilla groups, and regional air defense. The aircraft started arriving in 1989. Several years later, as the country felt the need to expand its air fleet, President Álvaro Uribe initiated the purchase of additional second-hand Kfirs.
Meanwhile, it decided to upgrade the existing Kfir fleet to the C10 and C12 variants.
The modernization package included improved engines, modern avionics, Elta radars, electronic-warfare systems, helmet-mounted sights, and integration of precision weapons such as the Derby beyond-visual-range missile, Python infrared missiles, and GPS-guided bombs, among other things. The expanded and upgraded fleet peaked at 25–30 aircraft, though exact figures are unknown.
In April 2025, then-President Gustavo Petro announced that Colombia would proceed with purchasing new Saab Gripen-E fighters to replace the aging Kfirs.
“After the letter of intent signed by the government of the Kingdom of Sweden, and having approved the country’s strategic air defense as a prioritized project, I inform: The fleet of aircraft to be acquired is completely new, cutting-edge technology, already implemented in Brazil, and they are of the Saab 39 Gripen brand,” Petro said in a post on X at the time.
The selection followed evaluation of competing offers that included the US F-16 Block 70 and French Rafale, as the EurAsian Times reported at the time. Later that year, the country signed a formal contract for 17 Gripens—15 single-seat Gripen E and two dual-seat Gripen F—in November 2025.
However, delivery of these jets is expected to begin in the late 2020s, which means the Kfirs will remain operational until the Gripens enter service.
Janes reported that only five Kfir jets remain airworthy, with the number expected to fall to three by the end of 2026. The source cited in the report said the sharp decline in availability is mainly due to problems with the General Electric J79-GE-J1EQD engines, rising maintenance costs, and the overall age of the airframes.
Last month, for instance, the fleet was temporarily grounded as IAI staff performed engine overhauls and inspections. According to the sources, the price per flying hour is currently at a whopping USD 30,000, and the unavailability is impacting FAC’s strike capabilities—including its required bombing missions against drug-trafficking groups across Colombia.
Colombia’s Kfir fleet has aged and suffered major attrition in the last two decades. However, the Latin American state continued to operate them because they are the country’s only dedicated fighter-bomber, used for critical internal security strikes against drug-trafficking and armed groups. Moreover, replacement programs were repeatedly delayed because of cost, budget priorities, political changes, and bureaucracy, among other factors.
The biggest irony of all is that the country continued to cling to these outdated Israeli jets despite diplomatic tensions with Israel.
Israel-Colombia Tensions
In May 2024, Colombia, under former President Gustavo Petro, announced that the country was breaking diplomatic ties with Israel over the latter’s military campaign against Gaza, accusing the country of carrying out a “genocide” in the Palestinian enclave. The decision mirrored similar moves by other countries in the region, including Bolivia and Belize.
The announcement marked a detrimental escalation in Colombia’s diplomatic ties with Israel. Petro accused the Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of pursuing a genocidal campaign against Palestinians, arguing that the international community could not remain silent in the face of the mounting civilian casualties and destruction in Gaza.
Petro nonetheless followed up on the announcement, closing Colombia’s embassy in Tel Aviv and terminating a free trade agreement.
“At the end of the year, maintenance and spare parts run out, and from then on, the fleet would rapidly enter a condition where we would no longer have the means to sustain it,” retired Gen. Guillermo León, former commander of the Colombian air force, told the Associated Press at the time. “This year, three aircraft were withdrawn from service due to compliance with their useful life cycle.”
Interestingly, though, the suspension of ties did not last long.
The current Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella, who succeeded Gustavo in August 2026, restored ties, reinstated the trade deal, and opened a Colombian embassy in Jerusalem—which Palestine wants to be its capital as part of a two-state solution—in October 2026.
“Today, we are taking a concrete step towards restoring diplomatic relations between our countries, relations that should never have been broken. Israel is a strategic partner. It always has been, and from now on, it will be an even stronger one,” Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs Omar Bula said at the opening.
The country erupted in protests over the new right-wing government’s policy towards Israel as hundreds took to the streets in early October 2026. Despite this opposition and through the changing political stance of this Latin American state, one thing has remained constant: Colombia’s reliance on the Israeli Kfir jets.
Kfir Jets Continue To Be Relevant
The Kfir is an air-superiority fighter jet Israel developed after France placed an arms embargo on the country.
Israel first relied on France for cutting-edge military aircraft, such as the Dassault Mirage III, which was widely employed in the 1967 Six-Day War. However, after the war, Paris placed Israel under a weapons embargo and halted the delivery of 50 Mirage 5J planes that Israel had already paid for, putting the nation in a precarious situation.
Embargoed and restricted, Israel still needed fighter jets to deter its adversaries, which forced it to transform its pressing necessity into urgent innovation and indigenization.
To bolster its air force and build capability, Israel developed its own combat aircraft, the Nesher, followed by the more sophisticated, multirole, all-weather, and Mach 2-capable Kfir. Both aircraft were based on the French Mirage 5, but the Kfir was more advanced than the Nesher, as the EurAsian Times explained in a detailed report.
The aircraft was equipped with an Elta EL/M-2001 fire-control radar with look-down and shoot-down capabilities. It could carry two 30mm DEFA 553 cannons, each with 140 rounds, built by the defense behemoth Rafael, as well as unguided air-to-ground rockets.
At the time, the Kfir was a magnificent bomb truck with a payload capability of more than six tons. It could carry a variety of missiles, including the AGM-65 Maverick, the Shafrir air-to-air missile, the AIM-9 Sidewinder, and the Shrike anti-radiation missile.
By the early 1980s, the Kfir C.1s started being replaced by newer fighters, such as the C.2 models with canards. Soon after, the IAF phased out the C. 2s in favor of the more advanced F-15 Eagles.
Subsequently, the Eagles became the IAF’s preferred aircraft, even though it continued to use Kfir planes in combat, particularly during operations in Lebanon.
The IAF removed the Kfirs from active duty in the second half of the 1990s, after they served for almost two decades. After that, nations like Ecuador, Sri Lanka, and Colombia purchased the aircraft, making them an export success.
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