Bolivian Air Force

Bolivian Air Force

Coat of arms of the Bolivian Air Force
Founded 1923
Country Bolivia
Part of Bolivian Armed Forces
Commanders
Current
commander
General del Aire (Air General) Tito Gandarillas
Insignia
Roundel
Aircraft flown
Helicopter Helibras HB350 Esquilo
Trainer Hongdu JL-8VB, Pilatus PC-7 Turbo Trainer, Diamond DA40
Transport Lockheed C-130 Hercules, BAE Systems 146

The Bolivian Air Force ('Fuerza Aérea Boliviana' or 'FAB') is part of the Military of Bolivia.

History

By 1938 the Bolivian air force consisted of about 60 aircraft (Curtiss Hawk fighters, Curtiss T-32 Condor II and Junkers W 34 bombers, Junkers Ju 86 used as transport craft, and Fokker C.V, Breguet 19 and Vickers Vespa reconnaissance planes), and about 300 staff; the officers were trained in Italy.[1]

Current organization

FAB is organized into air brigades, which is formed by one to three air groups. The air groups are based at La Paz, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Puerto Suárez, Tarija, Villamontes, Cobija, Trindad, Riberalta, Roboré, Uyuni, Oruro, Sucre and Chimoré.

Major commands included the following:

A Cavalier Mustang, formerly of the Bolivian Air Force, parked on a Canadian airfield.

Civil Aviation

The General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics (Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil—DGAC) formerly part of the FAB, administers a civil aeronautics school called the National Institute of Civil Aeronautics (Instituto Nacional de Aeronáutica Civil—INAC), and two commercial air transport services TAM and TAB.

TAM (Transporte Aéreo Militar)

TAM - Transporte Aéreo Militar (the Bolivian Military Airline) is an airline based in La Paz, Bolivia. It is the civilian wing of the 'Fuerza Aérea Boliviana' (the Bolivian Air Force), operating passenger services to remote towns and communities in the North and Northeast of Bolivia. TAM (aka TAM Group 71) has been a part of the FAB since 1945.

A similar airline serving the Beni Department with small planes is Línea Aérea Amaszonas,[3] using smaller planes than TAM.

TAB (Transportes Aéreos Bolivianos)

Although a civil transport airline, TAB - Transportes Aéreos Bolivianos, was created as a subsidiary company of the FAB in 1977. It is subordinate to the Air Transport Management (Gerencia de Transportes Aéreos) and is headed by an FAB general. TAB, a charter heavy cargo airline, links Bolivia with most countries of the Western Hemisphere; its inventory included a fleet of Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft. TAB's Base of operations was headquartered at El Alto, adjacent to La Paz's El Alto International Airport. TAB also flew to Miami and Houston, with stops in Panama.

Aircraft

Current inventory

A Bolivian K-8
Bolivia's Presidential Falcon 50 at Geneva International Airport
Two Bolivian T-33’s in formation
A pair of R44’s fly over the Bolivian country side
Aircraft Origin Type Variant In service Notes
Reconnaissance
Learjet 25 United States surveillance 2[4]
Transport
Falcon 50 France VIP 1[5]
C-130 United States transport C-130B 3[4]
Jetstream 31 United Kingdom transport 2[4]
King Air 90 United States transport 90/200/350 5[4]
MA60 China transport 2 on order[4]
Helicopters
AS332 France utility / transport 1[4] 5 on order[4]
AS350 France utility / liaison 2[4]
EC145 France utility 3[4]
SA316 France laision 1[4]
UH-1 United States utility UH-1H 14[4]
Trainer Aircraft
DA40 Austria basic trainer 9[4]
Foxtrot 4 United States basic trainer 1[4] 1 on order[4]
K-8 China jet trainer 6[4]
Pilatus PC-7 Switzerland trainer 3[4]
Tango XR United States trainer 1[4]
CT-133 Canada jet trainer AT-33A-N[6] 14[4]
Robinson R44 United States trainer 6[4] Air Training Group 22[7]
UAV
RemoEye-006 Republic of Korea surveillance 2[8]

Future acquisitions

Under construction by CITA, a total of 10 units of two models (Tiluchi and Gavilán) mounted in Bolivia under license of American Team Tango Company to be used to training, acrobatics and liaison.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Air force of Bolivia.
  1. R. Schnitzler, G.W. Feuchter, R. Schulz (Eds.): Handbuch der Luftfahrt (Manual of Aviation). Jahrgang 1939. p. 17-18. J.F. Lehmanns Verlag, München & Berlin
  2. "AviacinBoliviana.Net ::". Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  3. "Home - Airline Amaszonas - Flights Bolivia,Cuzco,Sucre". Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 "World Air Forces 2015 pg. 11". Flightglobal Insight. 2015. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  5. "FAB-001". flightradar24.com. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  6. Andrade 1982, p. 27
  7. "Bolivia takes delivery of first two R44s". helihub.com. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  8. "Bolivia receives South Korean UAV". DMI 2014. Retrieved 28 December 2014.
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