The Executive declares defense material purchases a military secret

The Executive Branch has declared as military secret the contractual operations necessary to execute the material acquisitions identified in File No. EX-2026-97868854-APN-SSGA#MD, which are thus exempt from the provisions regarding the publicity and dissemination of all proceedings of the process. The decision was formalized through Decree 1205/2026 (DECTO-2026-1205-APN-PTE), signed in the City of Buenos Aires on October 16, 2026, and published today, October 19, in the First Section of the Official Gazette of the Argentine Republic.

The decree is based on Law No. 23,554 on National Defense, which establishes as its purpose to guarantee the sovereignty and independence of the country, and Law No. 24,948, which assigns to the Ministry of Defense the responsibility of evaluating and deciding the equipment requirements of the forces. The text maintains that the Ministry of Defense identified “a process of acquisition of material and equipment whose nature, characteristics, and purpose require that its content be known only by authorized persons,” because its disclosure “could compromise national security and the Nation’s means of defense.” The measure is issued in exercise of the powers of Article 99, subsection 1, of the National Constitution, with the intervention of the General Directorate of Legal Affairs of the Ministry of Defense.

What the regulation establishes

• Article 1: declares as MILITARY SECRET, under the terms of Decree No. 9390/63, the contractual operations necessary to execute the acquisitions identified in File No. EX-2026-97868854-APN-SSGA#MD.
• Article 2: authorizes the Ministry of Defense to implement the leading acts through the Undersecretariat of Administrative Management.
• Article 3: orders the communication and publication of the measure and its referral to the National Directorate of the Official Registry for its filing.

The legal framework invokes Article 4 of Decree No. 9390 of October 11, 1963, whose Specific Annex (Section II, Exhaustive Enumeration, point 1, subsection i) includes among matters of “fundamental importance for the preparation and employment of the Armed Forces” the “Acquisitions, manufactures, constructions, and matters relating to their negotiations and procedures.”

A string of secrecy declarations

The regulation adds to a series of decisions of the same nature issued in the last two years, all under the umbrella of Decree No. 9390/63:

• Decree No. 370/24, of April 26, 2024: military secret regarding the contractual operation processed in File No. EX-2024-05198131-APN-DGPPYP#FAA.
• Decree No. 807/24, of September 9, 2024: secret regarding the contracting and construction of infrastructure works and the importation of material from the same weapons system.
• Decree No. 1073/24, of December 4, 2024: secret regarding additional contracts for the incorporation of complementary equipment and capabilities.
• Decree 735/2026, of August 14, 2026: military secret regarding the export of weapons system material for maintenance and update tasks, including aircraft parts, engines, spare parts, and live and training armament.

Without publicity or dissemination

The central recital of Decree 1205/2026 specifies the practical scope of the figure: once military secrecy is declared, “the contracting agencies must follow the necessary procedures for the acquisition of said material, being exempt from compliance with the provisions relating to the publicity and dissemination of all actions of the process.” In other words, the administrative purchasing procedure continues, but ceases to be publishable in its various stages.

The text does not identify the material, the amount, the quantity, nor the destination of the acquisitions: all that information is included in the file covered by the declaration. The decree bears the signatures of President Milei and Carlos Alberto Presti, and its publication lists copy number 77328/26.

The relevance of the measure is twofold: on one hand, it expands the perimeter of opacity over the equipment of the Armed Forces to a new file, distinct from those already reserved; on the other, it consolidates a mechanism—the military secret originating from 1963—as an ordinary way to withdraw defense purchases from public control and the mandatory dissemination of administrative acts.

Source: Official Gazette of the Argentine Republic, First Section, October 19, 2026 (official reference: DECTO-2026-1205-APN-PTE).