Santa Bernardina airfield was inaugurated on Sunday 14 April 1977, during the civic-military regime; Spanish Wikipedia records that Aparicio Méndez, the president installed by that regime, attended. Durazno sits almost in the geographic centre of Uruguay, and the airfield’s civil job was to be the alternate for flights that could not land at Carrasco, Montevideo’s airport, when fog or storms closed it. That role ended in 1993, when the concession of Punta del Este airport gave airlines a closer alternative.

Civil traffic never amounted to much: Spanish Wikipedia counts 43 domestic and two international flights, all air taxis, in 2020. The military use did. The air force’s base, named after Teniente 2° Mario W. Parallada, shares the runways and is the headquarters of Air Brigade II. English Wikipedia lists Escuadrón Aéreo N° 1 (attack), N° 2 (fighter), an advanced flight squadron and a liaison squadron in the brigade.

The runways are the reason. Runway 03/21 is 2,285 m long and 10/28 1,450 m, according to the Wikipedia infobox, enough for the A-37s and Pucarás that formed Uruguay’s strike force for four decades. In April 2021 Durazno was chosen as one of eight airports in the national system of international airports created in December 2020, and on 10 February 2025 President Luis Lacalle Pou inaugurated the renovated airport.

Uruguay bought eight new Cessna A-37B Dragonflies in 1976, FAU 270 to 277, and Uruguayan pilots ferried them from McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas. Zona Militar calls them the backbone of the FAU’s combat aviation. They served with Escuadrón Aéreo N° 2 alongside the six IA-58 Pucarás bought from Argentina in 1981, which were retired in 2017.

Age caught up with the jets. English Wikipedia records fatal A-37 accidents in 2004 and 2016, and in 2022 the FAU had to cancel its participation in Chile’s Salitre exercise because of engine maintenance problems. On 13 May 2026, the 75th anniversary of Escuadrón Aéreo N° 2, the A-37B was formally retired at Durazno after almost 50 years, leaving Uruguay without a jet combat aircraft for the first time since the T-33 arrived in 1956.

In September 2024 the government announced a plan to buy six Embraer A-29 Super Tucanos, two a year from 2025 to 2027; Zona Militar noted it was the first combat aircraft purchase since 1981. The contract, signed late in 2024, was put at about USD 100 million including a simulator, mission equipment, logistics and work on the base.

The first two, FAU 250 and 251, were accepted at Embraer’s Gavião Peixoto plant in February 2026 and landed at Durazno on 18 February, escorted by two A-37s. They were presented in late February to President Yamandú Orsi and Defence Minister Sandra Lazo, who said they would be integrated with radar and command and control to identify and intercept irregular aircraft. In April 2026 the US Embassy announced about USD 5 million of surveillance sensors for them; the four remaining aircraft had no published delivery dates.

Uruguay chose a propeller aircraft to replace its last jets on purpose. When the plan was announced in September 2024, Defence Minister Armando Castaingdebat said the Super Tucano technically met what the country needed; Zona Militar summarised the threat as one of border protection and illicit flights rather than war. A slow, well-armed turboprop with long endurance suits the job of finding and shadowing a light aircraft crossing the border at low level better than an old jet with thirsty engines.

The package bought with the aircraft points the same way. The roughly USD 100 million contract includes a flight simulator, mission equipment, integrated logistics and infrastructure at the base, and at the February 2026 presentation Defence Minister Sandra Lazo stressed integrating the A-29s with Uruguay’s radars and command and control, so that irregular aircraft can be identified and intercepted rather than merely detected.