Latin American Military - Argentina - Policía Federal Argentina (PFA)

Revised: January 25, 2010
Copyright © 1997-2010 by Jean Charles Barroux - jbarroux@LAMilitary.org

The first recorded use of aircraft by the Policía Federal Argentina (PFA) happened on April 15, 1929 when it used the Breguet XIV-A2, serialed R-233, belonging to the private company Aeroposta Argentina S.A. and piloted by Mr. Paul Vachet, to transport the officers Sr. Roberto Barneda and Of. José Romero to the city of San Salvador in the province of Entre Ríos to solve an important holdup to the Banco de la Nación offices in that city. This prompt reaction helped resolve the case in just four days.

On 1931 a project for the creation of the "Cuerpo Policial Aéreo" was presented to the authority by Insp. Juan Amadeo Camilletti, Insp. Luis Pablo Cortés Conde and Ay. Abel Navarro O'Connor. This was the first of a large number of projects that Insp. Juan Amadeo Camilletti would present without any effect.

Some officers of the institution took the civilian pilot course and on October 8, 1931 Insp. Juan Amadeo Camilletti and Ay. Abel Navarro O'Connor took the pilot exam and received the pilots licenses Nº 403 and 404 respectively.

Unfortunately January 3, 1933 would be marked by the death of Insp. Abel Navarro O'Connor when his Consolidated Fleet 2, serialed R-50, belonging to the Aero Club Argentino, spiraled some two hundred meters to the ground in a field called Quinta del Valle. He became thus the first martyr of the Cuerpo Federal de Aviación a long time before its creation.

Undeterred, Insp. Juan Amadeo Camilletti kept pushing for the creation of a flying component of the police force. He managed to get the approval of his superiors to undertake the pilot course provided by the Army and thus on December 14, 1933 he received the Military Pilot License as well as the pilot licence Nº 1 of the Policía Federal Argentina.

Over the years a number of personnel from the force undertook the task of taking the civilian pilot course so that by 1940 twenty had already received the aforementioned license.

Finally, by 1948 the Chief of Police, General de División Arturo Bertollo created the Cuerpo Aéreo de Policía under the command of Subcrio Gascón and integrated by a small number of pilots and mechanics, but without aircraft. Initially the aircraft were provisioned from the Dirección General de Aviación Civil case by case, but in 1951 the DGAC transferred a couple of de Havilland 104 Dove, LQ-XWR (C/N 4068) and LQ-XZX (C/N 4143), and a single Sikorsky S-51 Dragonfly, LQ-XXR (C/N 5161), to the Policía Federal Argentina. These aircraft were mostly used to perform regular liaison and personnel transport duties as well as medevac missions.

After 13 years without aircraft the Departamento de Aviación was created during the second half of 1970 when the then chief of the Policía Federal Argentina, General de Brigada Jorge Esteban Cáceres Monié organized a commission to study the use of aircraft in the institution, naming Comisario Félix Leonardo Rizutti as the chief of the newly created organization. The task of recreating this organization was performed with considerable technical assistance of both the Army and the Navy. This activity lead to the formal creation of the Departamento de Aviación according to the Orden del Día Nº 292 (Artículo 791) dated December 29, 1970. Then on December 30, 1970 according to the Orden del Día Nº 293 the Crio Insp Francisco Doldan was named as the new chief of that brand new department.

So, it was on August 13, 1971 that the Policía Federal Argentina received it first aircraft at Área Material Córdoba in the form of a FAMA/FMA I.A.50 Guaraní II with the LQ-JXN serial (C/N 003). This aircraft was a former Fuerza Aérea Argentina example where it used the T-111 serial.

The year 1972 was mostly marked by the very successful incorporation to the service of the first four MBB Bö-105 helicopters and by the start of the works on the helicopter base at Isla Demarchi.

On December 23, 1973 an insurgent unit composed of cells from different organizations amalgamated under the name Batallón Urbano José de San Martín mounted a frontal attack against the Army unit Batallón de Arsenales 601 Domingo Viejobueno based at Monte Chingolo in the province of Buenos Aires. The newly arrived MBB Bö-105 helicopters were literally the first to arrive on scene and operated nearly for the full day of fighting with elements of all of the military and security forces in range. During the first semester of 1974, due to the increasing insurgent activity in the province of Tucumán, a few MBB Bö-105 were dispatched to the zone of San Gabriel de Acheral under the command of Crio Grl Alberto Villar with the objective of providing support to the Policía Federal Argentina units engaged on the terrain with logistical support from the Army.

At the end of March 1981 an unsuccessful effort was made to use four Bell OH-13H Sioux transferred from the Army as trainers. Another major insurgent operation happened on January 23, 1989 when members of the Movimiento Todos por la Patria (MTP) took the military base of La Tablada, in the province of Buenos Aires, where were located the Regimiento de Infantería 3 General Manuel Belgrano and the Escuadrón de Caballería Blindado I. Again the MBB Bö-105 helicopters (LQ-LAR, LQ-LAT and LQ-MMS) were used in numbers performing a large number of the medevac missions, mostly under enemy fire.

On November 10, 1994 by virtue of Orden del Día Interna Nº 196 the División Escuadrón Aéreo was reorganized with the creation of the next units: Sección Operaciones Interior, Sección Operaciones Oficinas, Grupo I de Helicópteros and Grupo II de Helicópteros, on top of the existing Escuadrilla de Helicópteros and Escuadrilla de Aviones. The goal was for Grupo I de Helicópteros to be based in Tucumán and Grupo II de Helicópteros in Rosario, but due to lack of budget that last unit has not yet been created. A year latter, on November 10, 1995 by Orden del Día Nº 198, the Escuela Federal de Aviación Policial was officially created and located in the facilities of the B.A. Isla Demarchi.

On September 5, 2003 the Ministerio de Justicia, Seguridad y Derechos Humanos through the Decisión Administrativa 70/2003 transferred the single Eurocopter AS-365N2 Dauphin to the Prefectura Naval Argentina (PNA) which already operates a number of Eurocopter AS-365N Dauphin and where it will probably be used for crew training since it is clearly not equipped for maritime patrol duties. In exchange the Policía Federal Argentina received a budget of 20,000,000, local currency, per year for the next five years for the purpose of buying brand new helicopters. The PFA also received the remaining of the budget that was assigned to the PNA with the objective of acquiring a new helicopter, probably the Eurocopter EC-135, objective which was made impossible by the devaluation of the Argentinean Peso in the last few years. This remaining budget will be used by the PFA to acquire video and communications equipment for their patrol cars.

The mission of this organization is to bring help to all police activities, including search and security missions, from the air. Some of the helicopters in the force operate television cameras that can transmit realtime imagery back to the Dirección General de Operaciones. The helicopters of this force can be identified using any of three systems; the civilian serial, an internal identification code used on the radio with the Dirección General de Operaciones in the format "H-xx" and the callsign used with air traffic in the format "PF-xx".

Current Equipment

Former Equipment

Units

Cuerpo Federal de Aviación

Sección Operaciones Interior
Sección Operaciones Oficinas
Escuadrilla de Helicópteros
Grupo I de Helicópteros
Grupo II de Helicópteros
Escuadrilla de Aviones
Escuela Federal de Aviación Policial