Argentine Government Announces Major Restructuring of Armed Forces Leadership

BUENOS AIRES, December 3, 2025 – The national government announced a profound reconfiguration in the leadership of the Armed Forces, hours before Lieutenant General Carlos Alberto Presti formally takes office as Minister of Defense. The government seeks to strengthen the alignment between political leadership and the forces, enhance joint capabilities, and consolidate an orderly transition that, according to official sources, responds to a criterion of 'operational excellence, professionalism, and cohesion.' With these appointments, Milei reorganizes the command board with a loyal, experienced, and prepared leadership, ready for a stage of accelerated modernization, marked by new acquisitions, internal restructuring, and the revival of the strategic role of the Armed Forces. The new structure, designed by Presti and approved without objections by Milei, marks a turning point in Argentine military leadership. Unlike the changes in the Army and Navy, President Milei decided to keep Brigadier General Gustavo Javier Valverde as head of the Argentine Air Force. Valverde, a pilot and instructor, was put in function in November 2024 after the displacement of Brigadier Fernando Mengo for administrative irregularities. The Casa Rosada confirmed that President Javier Milei fully accepted the list proposed by the future minister, who, in an extraordinary fact, will not go into retirement, but will exercise the political office in a situation of availability, maintaining his military rank. The decision implies a simultaneous turnover in the Army, the Navy, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in an ordering designed by Presti to consolidate a leadership aligned with his operational criteria and the strategic vision of President Milei. The first key movement took place in the Argentine Army, where Division General Oscar Santiago Zarich was appointed as the new head of the branch, replacing Presti himself. His promotion confirms the line of professional continuity that the future minister wants to print in the land force. The Argentine Navy, for its part, also registered a high-impact replacement: Admiral Carlos María Allievi will go into retirement and will be replaced by Vice Admiral Juan Carlos Romay, 59, current Director General of Education and with an extensive career in logistic ships, school ships, and training destinations. Vice Admiral Marcelo Alejandro Dalle Nogare, until now deputy chief of the body, was promoted to the leadership in replacement of Brigadier General Xavier Isaac, who will retire from service. Romay was commander of the ARA Punta Alta, the ARA Patagonia, and the Frigate Libertad, in addition to directing the Naval Military School. With a relevant passage through the Joint Aerospace Command during the G-20 and international experience as Defense attaché in Spain, he will continue to lead the aeronautical modernization at a key moment, coinciding with the arrival of the first F-16 aircraft. The appointments are spread in the run-up to two events of strong political and military symbolism: the ceremony of assumption of Presti as Minister of Defense – scheduled for next Tuesday – and the official presentation, this Sunday, of the six F-16s that will arrive on Friday in Córdoba, accompanied by President Milei and outgoing Minister Luis Petri. Zarich, 59, was serving as commander of Training and Readiness, a function from which he conducted large-scale military exercises, including the 'Liberator' operation, which mobilized 2,500 personnel and 300 vehicles last August in Chaco and Formosa. Dalle Nogare — who was a military attaché in South Africa and director of Intelligence of the EMCO — belongs to the same promotion as Allievi at the Naval School and integrated multiple joint operations, from Antarctic campaigns to surveillance deployments in the South Atlantic.