Pull the throttle into afterburner and the jet that climbs away from the crowd is scarlet and white, the colours of the Danish flag wrapped around a screaming F-16. For two seasons, E-006 — the “Dannebrog” jet — has been the star of Europe’s air-show summer. Now Denmark has handed it over for a one-way journey to the far side of the world.

The Royal Danish Air Force has withdrawn its most photographed aircraft for transfer to Argentina, part of a remarkable second act for a fleet Denmark no longer wants. As Copenhagen re-equips with the stealthy F-35A, its battle-proven F-16s are being scattered across two continents: 19 donated to Ukraine, 24 sold to Argentina — and, in a final twist, the cash from the Argentine deal flowing onward to Kyiv.

For E-006, the price of a new life is its identity. Before it reaches South America, the flying flag will be painted over in anonymous grey.

A flag with wings

E-006 took on its red-and-white scheme in 2024, becoming the second aircraft to carry the “Dannebrog” name as the Danish solo-display jet. With the national banner streaked along its fuselage and a fierce motif on the tail, it was designed to do one thing: make people look up. It worked. From Fairford to Kleine Brogel, the little Falcon in flag colours drew some of the biggest crowds of any single-ship display in Europe.

It also marked a milestone. The F-16 first flew back in 1974, and Denmark has operated the type for more than four decades — long enough for the Dannebrog jet to double as a farewell to an aircraft that defined the Danish air force for a generation. That farewell is now arriving in earnest.

Argentina returns to supersonic flight

For Argentina, the deal is historic. The country lost its supersonic capability when it retired the last of its Mirages in 2015, and spent years unable to replace them — in part because British-made components in several candidate fighters were blocked, a lingering shadow of the 1982 Falklands War. The American-built, Danish-flown F-16 finally broke the deadlock.

The first six aircraft touched down at Río Cuarto in December 2025, met by President Javier Milei, with a formation flypast over Buenos Aires alongside a US Air Force KC-135 tanker. In all, 24 single- and twin-seat F-16s will make the journey, ferried south in batches, with the full fleet due by around 2028. After decades grounded below the speed of sound, Argentina is supersonic again.

The Ukraine connection

The other half of Denmark’s fleet went east. Copenhagen donated 19 F-16s to Ukraine — the original Dannebrog display jet among them — to help Kyiv rebuild an air force under daily attack. And in a move that closed the circle, Denmark announced it would pass the revenue from the Argentine sale to Ukraine as well.

It is a neat illustration of how a single retiring fleet can serve two very different ends: restoring a Latin American air force’s pride on one continent, and helping a European nation fight for survival on another.

From flying flag to frontline grey

Soon the scarlet will be gone, sanded back and resprayed in the matt grey of an operational fighter half a world from Denmark. E-006 will trade air-show applause for the workaday business of policing Argentine skies. It is a quieter ending than the roar of an air-tattoo afterburner — but for a jet built to fight, perhaps a fitting one.

Sources: FlightGlobal; Buenos Aires Times; Zona Militar; Defence Blog.