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División de Aviación Asalto Aéreo - History

Army Aviation is currently organised as part of the División de Aviación Asalto Aéreo (Air Assault Division), which has five brigades, three of them comprising aviation assets and the others ground forces. Until 1995, the Ejército Nacional (Colombian Army) depended on the air force for all types of air support, but after a long campaign, President Ernesto Samper authorised the creation of the Aviación Ejército Nacional (Army Aviation) on August 25, 1995. Planning work took place the following year and it was activated in August 1997.

The Colombian Army Aviation divided its history into several stages that differ from each other due to their regulatory conditions, size of the weapon and organization. Since 1919 there have been five periods covered by this branch of the Army.

Military aviation had its beginnings in 1916, when the National Government, headed by President José Vicente Concha, sent a group of soldiers to Europe immersed in the First World War, in order to get to know first-hand the latest advances in technology, and which at that time included aviation. Based on studies and recommendations, finally, on December 31, 1919, Law 126 of that year was signed, which ordered the creation of the Military Aviation School as an integral part of the National Army, which was its fifth weapon.

From then on, the history of Army Aviation began to take shape during this first stage, which ended in 1944 in a future parallel to the history of the Colombian Air Force. The first years were of many complications. The efforts carried out in Flanders, where the Military Aviation School was installed, were truncated in 1922 when the Colombian state closed the school due to the country's economic situation.

It would not be until 1925 when operations would restart again. By then, the rules relating to the aviation weapon had already been established, which included Decree 2127 of 1920, which established the Aviation Section as a dependency of the Ministry of War, instead of the Fifth Weapon of the Army. The officers and NCOs assigned to the military aviation initially came from other arms and their alma mater was the Army training schools. By the 1920s, development was slow and little by little military pilots were being trained with the support of foreign missions. In the 1930s, the conflict with Peru forced the country to strengthen itself militarily, the aviation weapon being one of the most benefited. Thanks to the injection of capital, state and citizen support, after the conflict, Colombia had an aviation weapon of important characteristics in terms of size, type of aircraft, infrastructure and experience of its personnel. At that time, Decree 2065 of 1932 once again transformed military aviation, constituting Department 8 of the Ministry of War, called the General Division of National Military Aviation.

The lessons left by the war allowed development to be maintained and entering the 1940s, with the outbreak of World War II, the Colombian military aviation would see a new impulse as a result of the support of the allied governments, especially that of the United States, as part of efforts to contain possible leaks and attacks by the axis countries. For 1942, civil aviation would be separated from military and two years later a new step in this history would be taken with Law 102 of December 31, 1944, which finally separated military aviation from the Army, constituting the Colombian Air Force as an independent institution, thus closing the first stage.

A decade later under the government of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, objectives are established in favor of the country's military strategy, which included the construction of the Tolemaida fort and the acquisition of several helicopters that were initially assigned to the Army, where the first rotary wing course in 1954. However, these aircraft were eventually handed over to the air force for operation.

During the following decades Army Aviation would be completely deactivated, despite some efforts to revive it. The most important of these would come in 1982, when a group of officers and noncommissioned officers were selected to develop their courses for fixed-wing pilot and maintenance technicians who, once they graduated, would become autonomous Army personnel. Despite having started its courses, the Army Command ordered to deactivate the program. With this the second stage is closed.

The third would begin in 1984 and culminate in 1995. During these years the Army received its first aircraft from the National Narcotics Council: Rockwell Turbo Commander 695, Cessna 421 and Piper Seneca III, with which it would form the Army Aviation Detachment [DAE]. At this time, the aircrafts and their air and ground crews would fulfill transport and liaison functions within the National Army missions.

This timid and more concrete effort would give way to the final reactivation of the Fifth Weapon of the Army through Decree 1422 of August 25, 1995. The fourth stage would begin here, which would see an important rebirth with the acquisition of new equipment, sustained growth. and accumulation of experiences.

A good part of the Army's flying material would arrive through Plan Colombia, which, together with the government investment, would provide it with a fleet of helicopters of significant proportions, made up of Bell UH-1H, Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk and MiL Mi- 17. New bases would also be built, the most important of them in Tolemaida, where the General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla Air Field is located, the most important unit of the Army Aviation.

The then Army Aviation Brigade would grow with the activation of the Aerotactic Battalion in 1997, which would later become the Helicopter Battalion. In the same year, the Air Transport Battalion was born, which would allow the Army Aviation to grow in air equipment. With the needs posed by the internal conflict and the eradication of illicit crops, new units would be created, including the Brigade Against Drug Trafficking, which would operate Bell UH-1N, Huey II and Kaman K-max helicopters. In 2003 the Army Aviation School was created based at the Tolemaida base and in 2004 the Air Transport Battalion was deactivated and the Aviation Battalion Number 1 was activated.

The fifth and last stage of this history begins in 2007, when the continuous experiences and needs converged in the current DAAVA Air Assault Aviation Division of the Army, which brings together all the minor units, personnel and equipment of the weapon. This is how Army Aviation has one of the largest helicopter fleet in the region, being the fourth largest Black Hawk operator in the world. In total, there are more than a hundred aircraft arranged throughout the territory, specialized in roles such as support for surface troops, air assault, medical transport, troop transport, liaison and intelligence, and which also include the commissioning of unmanned aircraft operation.