| Naval Aviation |
By Erwin van Dijkman
History
Naval aviation, or Aviação Naval (AvN) as it was known then, in Brazil was in the forefront of development of military aviation. The history of naval aviation is intertwined with that of the army aviation. Both services had an aviation school of their own and existed long before the official inception of the Air Force. The birth of the naval air force as we now know it can be traced back to 1916. The Escola de Aviação Naval - EAvN was created on 23 August 1916 the first official military flying school in Brazil. They started with three Curtiss F flying boats. Army officers were trained there as well in the beginning because they did not have an aviation school of their own yet (refer to the general history segment above). The early years saw use of both flying boats, the Curtiss F and Savoia-Marchetti SM-55s for example, and regular fighter aircraft of that era, like the Boeing 256 delivered in 1932. The AvN even formed an aerial demonstration flight with their 256s.
The navy send some of its aircraft to the border with Bolivia and Paraguay during the 1934 Chaco war. These aircraft, Boeing 256s and Vought V66B Corsairs were used for border patrol duties and this marked the first serious use of the naval air arm. More modern aircraft were incorporated in the late 30s. German built Focke-Wulf FW-44J Stieglitz an FW-58B Weihe aircraft greatly enhanced both the quantity and capabilities of the AvN. By the time the air force was formed in 1941, the naval force had nearly hundred aircraft on strength. The aforementioned Focke-Wulfs constituting the majority of the fleet along with various De Havilland Moth-variants and Wacos, mostly only a few per type.
After the formation of the Força Aérea Brasileira it took eleven years after the before the naval air arm was resurrected. The Directoria de Aeronáutica da Marinha was formed by law on 4 August 1952 resorting under the Ministerio da Marinha. This underlined the felt necessity to have an independent naval air service with its own administrative control. The complex at Sao Pedro da Aledeia was constructed and the Centro de Instrução e Adestramento Aeronaval (CIAAN) was formed. This proved to be only the first step towards a fully development air arm. Despite of its independence the AvN was only allowed by law to use helicopters and although a ship was acquired that was capable of aircraft operations, the fixed wing aircraft remained the monopoly of the air force for a long time to come.
However, in the sixties the AvN steadily grew into a potent force nonetheless. This next important phase saw the birth of many of the flying units that are still current today. For general purpose HU-1 (1º Esquadrão de Helicópteros de Emprego Geral) was formed in 1961 flying Whirlwind and Widgeon helicopters. Moreover, a training unit (1º Esquadrão de Helicópteros de Instrução - HI-1) was created in 1962 flying Bell 47s. The anti-submarine warfare and attack duties were being carried out by SH-3 Seaking helicopters from the 1º Esquadrão de Helicópteros (HS-1) formed in 1965. The AvN worked in close co-operation with FAB's P-16 (Grumman S-2 Tracker) aircraft. The Trackers were allowed to carry out operations from the aircraft carrier NAeL Minas Gerais without being formally operated by the Marinha! In this phase of the history of AvN a dedicated attack squadron flying the Lynx helicopter (1º Esquadrão de Helicópteros de Ataque - HA-1) was formed as well in 1971.
In the late eighties and nineties reconnaissance, transport, training and rescue missions were performed with various types of helicopters. More general-purpose squadrons were formed, HU-2 in 1988 with the Super Puma, HU-3 in 1994 with the Esquilo, HU-4 in 1995 with Esquilo and HU-5 in 1998 also with the Esquilo. Not all of these units were based at Sao Pedro da Aldeia. In fact, HU-3 and HU-4 started as aerial detachments (Destacemento Aéreo Embarcado) to the river patrol units of the Flotilla Amazonas (created in 1979) and Ladario respectively. Fifth squadron was born from the detachment at Base Fluvial Ilha Terrapleno de Leste an island in the Rio Grande. This historic aviation site was already in use in the early years of naval aviation in Brazil, mainly as a flying boat base. It was also used form postal flights in the second half of the thirties.
The present and future
The oddity of not being allowed to operate fixed wing aircraft was finally corrected in 1998. The change being ordered in July 1996 basically opened the way for the navy to operate any aircraft necessary for its duties. Immediately the search was started for a suitable aircraft for the First fighter and attack squadron (1º Esquadrão de Aviões de Interceptação e Ataque -VF-1), already formed on paper in 1965. The aircraft found were a batch of last generation Skyhawks no longer used by the Kuwait Air Force because they just received new F/A-18C/D aircraft. The Kuwaiti Skyhawks generally similar to the US Navy A-4M still had enough flying hours left. The agreement to buy the survivors was met on 30 April 1998 and the aircraft already arrived in Brazil on 7 September of the same year.
Since then the aircraft have been very active in several national and international (combined) exercises (TEMPEREX, ARAEX, URUEX to name a few) aboard the new aircraft carrier NAeL São Paulo commissioned on 15 November 2000. This is the former French carrier Foch, enabling the Argentinean navy Super Etendards to operate from it as well. Finally, the Brazilian naval aviation is the potent force able of regional power projection it always aspired to be!
Sources
http://www.daerm.mar.mil.br/ (official)
http://www.angelfire.com/space/anb/aeronaves/aeronaves.html(unofficial)
http://www.flysite.com.br/historia/aviacaonaval.shtm (unofficial)
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Photo: Cees-Jan van der Ende
Photo: Anno Gravemaker
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Força Aérea Brasileira
FAB Order of Battle