Santa Maria Air Force Base – ALA4 is a base of the Brazilian Air Force, located in Santa Maria, Brazil. It shares some facilities with Santa Maria Airport.

History

In 1944 the then President of Brazil

Getúlio Vargas Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (; 19 April 1882 – 24 August 1954) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil, from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1954. Due to his long and controversial tenure as Brazi ...

allocated an area of 4 million square meters near Santa Maria with the purpose of building an aerodrome. The works were conducted on an urgent basis, with the collaboration of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

and it was finally opened in April 1945. Santa Maria Air Force Base was created on 18 December 1970 and was commissioned on 15 October 1971 and since then it has an active presence in the region. Between 1971 and 2015, civil and military facilities were shared. However, in 2015 an agreement between the Brazilian Air Force and the Municipality of Santa Maria, transferred part of the facilities to the latter. The civil portion of the aerodrome is administrated by the Municipality and the military portion by the Brazilian Air Force.

Units

The following units are based at Santa Maria Air Force Base: * 1st Squadron of the 10th Aviation Group (1º/10ºGAv) ''Poker'', using the AMX A-1M. * 3rd Squadron of the 10th Aviation Group (3º/10ºGAv) ''Centauro'', using the AMX A-1M. * 5th Squadron of the 8th Aviation Group (5º/8ºGAv) ''Pantera'', using the H-60L Black Hawk. * 1st Squadron of the 12th Aviation Group (1º/12ºGAv) ''Hórus'', using the Elbit RQ-450 Hermes, Elbit RQ-900 Hermes, and Elbit RQ-1150 Heron. * 4th Squadron of the 1st Communications and Control Group (4º/1ºGCC) ''Mangrulho'', using radars and equipment for air defense.

Accidents and incidents

*24 June 1985: Brazilian Air Force, a

Lockheed C-130E Hercules The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally design ...

registration FAB-2457 flew into the side of a hill while on approach to land at Santa Maria Air Force Base under fog. All 7 occupants died.

Access

The base is located 11 km east of downtown Santa Maria.

Gallery

This gallery displays aircraft that are or have been based at Santa Maria. The gallery is not comprehensive.

Present aircraft

File:Brazilian Air Force AMX air-to-air refuelling.jpg, AMX A-1M File:UH-60 Brazil (cropped).jpg, Sikorsky H-60L Black Hawk File:Vant Hermes 450 da FAB no aeroporto de Cáceres (MT) (8101398607).jpg, Elbit RQ-450 Hermes

Retired aircraft

File:L-19 (8141380799).jpg, Cessna L-19A Bird Dog File:Aeronave T6 da Força Aérea Brasileira – FAB.tif, North American T-6G Texan Neiva N-591 Regente C-42 2238 FAB SDU 08.05.72 edited-3.jpg, Neiva L-42 Regente File:Iroquois (4892089037).jpg, Bell H-1H Iroquois File:Brazilian Air Force Embraer AT-26 Xavante (EMB-326GC) RSC.jpg, Embraer AT-26 Xavante File:Neiva T-25... Universal (621), Brazil - Air Force AN1132356.jpg, Neiva T-25A Universal File:Emb810 Brazil (16559291830).jpg, Embraer U-7 Seneca

References

External links

* * * {{Military of Brazil Rio Grande do Sul Brazilian Air Force Brazilian Air Force bases Buildings and structures in Rio Grande do Sul Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul 1971 establishments in Brazil