began allowing women to serve. Support to UN peacekeeping missions The Argentine Air Force has been involved in United Nations peacekeeping missions, sending a contingent to Cyprus in 1994 and deploying Bell 212 helicopters to Haiti during 2005. Early 21st Century In early 2005, seventeen brigadiers, including the Chief of Staff, Brigadier General Carlos Rohde, were fired by President Néstor Kirchner following a scandal involving drug trafficking through Ezeiza International Airport. Kirchner cited failures in the security systems of the Argentine airports, which were overseen by the National Aeronautic Police, then a branch of the Air Force (predecessor of the today independent Airport Security Police), and cover-ups of the scandal. 2010s , budgetary constraints continued, leading to the disbanding of the Boeing 707 transport squadron and maintenance problems for half of the C-130 Hercules fleet. In August 2010, a contract was signed for two Mi-17E helicopters, plus an option on a further three, to support Antarctic bases. The FAA has been seeking to replace its ageing force with more capable and more serviceable modern aircraft. The acquisition of Spanish Mirage F1Ms, IAI Kfir Block 60s and Saab Gripen E/Fs were considered, but as of February 2015, all of those deals appear to have stalled; the Mirage F1 deal was scrapped by the Spanish government in March 2014, after pressure from the UK to not assist in FAA modernization over tensions between the countries over the Falkland Islands. The UK has also managed to veto the sale of Gripen E/Fs, as 30% of the Gripen's parts are manufactured there. The deal with Israel has reportedly stalled for technical and political reasons. China has allegedly offered JF-17/FC-1's and Chengdu J-10's to Argentina. The two countries have formed a working group to look into the transfer of 14 aircraft. Russia had also offered to lease 12 Su-24 strike aircraft to the FAA, but Jane's reported that the Su-24 would not be very useful to the FAA and that "it would appear that any proposed transfer of such aircraft is likely the result of Russia playing political games with the UK over the continuing crisis in Ukraine." All Mirages were officially decommissioned on 30 November 2015. The A-4s were grounded , for lack of spares; in any case only 4–5 were airworthy with the rest in storage at Villa Reynolds. When Barack Obama visited in March 2016, Air Force One was accompanied by US