C5N has once again targeted the Government of Javier Milei, this time for the incorporation of helicopters for the Armed Forces, but the attempt to question the Defense policy ended in an unusual analysis about the speed of combat aircraft and the very “speed of light”.
The discussion took place during a broadcast of the channel, where they questioned the Government's move to acquire helicopters and made a comparison with warplanes.
The problem arose when the analysis began to mix basic concepts about the speeds of aircraft.
C5N aimed to criticize Milei and ended up talking about the “speed of light”
During the segment, one of the journalists stated that “the helicopter is the slowest aerial vehicle” and argued that, due to its characteristics, it could not reach certain maritime targets as quickly as a plane.
“You can't reach the helicopter of a navy, nor can you reach 200 nautical miles, you can't, because it's slow,” he asserted.
Up to that point, the argument sought to establish a difference between the capabilities of a helicopter and those of a combat aircraft.
However, the explanation quickly devolved into a confusing reference to the speed of warplanes and the speed of light, in a passage that generated all kinds of reactions on social media.
The problem is evident: no combat aircraft can even remotely approach the speed of light. Light travels at about 300,000 kilometers per second, a speed completely out of scale compared to any aircraft built by humans.
The new attempt by C5N to criticize the Government
The episode occurred within the framework of a particularly critical coverage by C5N regarding the Defense policy implemented by Milei.
The channel questioned the incorporation of helicopters and, according to the argument that circulated on social media, even labeled them as “junk helicopters”, attempting to instill the idea that the Government would be prioritizing material of little utility over the need for combat aircraft.
But helicopters and combat aircraft serve completely different functions.
Military helicopters can be used for troop transport, tactical operations, evacuations, logistical support, search and rescue, and other missions that require the ability to operate at low speed and, in certain models, even land in areas where a plane cannot.
Fighters, on the other hand, are designed for high-speed aerial operations, interception, air superiority, and attack.
Therefore, the serious discussion should focus on what capabilities Argentina needs to recover and what type of material allows for that, not on presenting both platforms as if they were direct substitutes.
Milei's Defense policy came under attack again
Argentina has entered the last decades with a significant deterioration of its military capabilities, resulting from years of disinvestment, lack of maintenance, and absence of a sustained modernization policy.
The Milei administration began to reverse part of that situation with the incorporation of new equipment for the Armed Forces.
This includes both systems aimed at recovering aerial capabilities and material for the various forces and operational units.
That C5N questions the Government's decisions is part of the political debate. What is striking is that a criticism of military material ends up leading to an explanation that introduces the “speed of light” as a reference for discussing warplanes.
The attempt to launch a new attack against Milei thus turned into another unusual television blunder by C5N, which once again became the center of ridicule for the way it presented its criticism of the Government.