Guatemalan Air Force / Fuerzas de Aire - Modernization
The Guatemalan military suffers from an inventory of aging and obsolete equipment in its ground, air, and naval forces. Operational readiness rates for its equipment are very poor due to lack of funding for operations and maintenance. The military also has little funding for procurement of spare parts, which in many cases are expensive or even non-existent because of the age of the equipment. For example, of the six UH-1H and Bell 212 helicopters in the Guatemalan Air Force inventory, only two were operational as of 2006. All three of the Air Force's A-37 ground attack aircraft were grounded due to a lack of parts.
The Guatemalan Air Force, responsible for protection of national airspace, investigation of air tracks of interest (ATOIs ) suspected drug flights), and transportation of police and prosecutors to ATOI landing sites in the remote Peten province, has literally worn out its equipment and it would be several months before the MAP funds released in February 2005 began to restore the lost capability.
A narrow interpretation of The US ability to provide assistance from INCLE funds to the Guatemalan military and inadequate funding levels (from both the USG and the GOG) precluded adequate repair, training and fuel for Guatemala aircraft and has taken the Air Force out of action. Similar shortages of equipment and fuel have precluded effective operations by the Guatemalan Navy. Moreover, traffickers had shifted from daylight-hour drug flights to night flights and increased use of &go-fast8 boats to move cocaine into Guatemala. The Guatemalan Air Force, even if it had flyable aircraft, has no capacity for night operations and the cost of becoming capable of nights ops is prohibitive at current INCLE funding levels.
The US State Department Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) deployed four Huey-II helicopters to Guatemala in FY 2008 using reprogrammed funds. In 2009, we will continue to provide training, technical oversight, and logistical/maintenance support to host nation personnel who performed counternarcotics missions with these helicopters to interdict trafficking and support eradication activities.
Guatemala had operational from July 2015 the three radars acquired from the Spanish company Indra to improve its early warning network. These tools will be used mainly in the fight against air traffic. The teams, whose combined cost was 36 million euros, could be acquired thanks to an international loan with Banco Bilbao-Vizcaya. The radars will be distributed by different points of the territory to expand the national defense network. The first of the radars was at the Port of San Jose, Escuintla, on the Pacific coast, south of the country. The second device was located in Puerto Barrios, Izabal, in the Guatemalan Caribbean. The third went go to San Andrés, Petén, in the northwest of the country, a border point with Mexico and Belize.
Aeronautica Civil de Guatemala coordinates an air monitoring system integrated by second generation radars installed 15 years ago. These devices are not able to detect aircraft that deactivate their data transmission system, known as transponder. This was not a problem with the new radars, whose technology is able to detect almost everything.
In September 2011 Guatemala announced plans to purchase six Brazilian military aircraft Super Tucano, radars and other equipment to combat the narcotics trade traffic of which the Central American country is considered a crucial link between South America and the United States. Finance minister Luis Velasquez said that the Central bank had authorized the government to complete the proceedings for the 170 million dollars credit to finance the operation.
In October 2013, the Guatemalan government completed the acquisition of six A-29 Super Tucano aircraft with the Brazilian company Embraer, however, a month later the Guatemalan government canceled the purchase for a surcharge of about 3 million dollars for each aircraft.
Guatemalan Defense Minister Manuel Lopez said 22 January 2015 that his country plans to buy Super Tucano aircraft to Brazil with a loan from a Spanish bank, despite the fact that President Otto Pérez had suspended the acquisition for being over-priced. "We have bills that we hope we can walk through. One is the loan of 11.9 million euros for the purchase of two patrol boats, two Super Tucano aircraft and three radars, "said the official adding that the borrower would be the Spanish bank BBVA.
The minister argued that the airplanes are fundamental to protect the biosphere of Guatemala and that already he dealt with the subject of the credit with the president of the Congress, the opponent Luis Rabbé. "We have this year to get loan approval. The president of Congress intends to make this happen," said the minister, as quoted by the newspaper Prensa Libre.
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