1948–1964: a country without an army, and four Mustangs

Costa Rica is the best-known example of a state that chose to have no army. After the civil war of 12 March to 24 April 1948, which English Wikipedia calls the bloodiest event in twentieth-century Costa Rican history with about 2,000 dead, President José Figueres Ferrer abolished the military; Wikipedia’s Public Force article dates the abolition to 1 December 1948, and Article 12 of the 1949 constitution made it permanent. The Air Vigilance Service article gives 1 December 1949 instead, so the two Wikipedia articles disagree by a year. Abolition did not end military-type flying at once. According to English Wikipedia’s P-51 Mustang article, a Costa Rican Air Force flew four P-51D Mustangs from 1955 to 1964. How they were acquired, and whether they flew in action, was not confirmed in the sources reached for this page, so no combat record is given for them here.

1958–1994: from one Cessna to a police air wing

The line that leads to today’s service is a civil one. According to English Wikipedia, the air wing was created in 1958 with a single Cessna 180, bought three Cessna 185s in 1962 and acquired a helicopter for the President in 1970. In 1994 it was renamed the Air Vigilance Service, with 15 aircraft. Wikipedia describes it as a civilian police body under the Public Force of Costa Rica, itself part of the Ministry of Public Security, with three air bases, San José (Base 2) being the main operations centre; its tasks are air support for police operations, humanitarian missions and security at the country’s airports. Its aircraft carry MSP (Ministerio de Seguridad Pública) registrations rather than military serials. Wikipedia also reports a bill to rename it the Air Vigilance Police; it was not checked whether the bill passed.

The 2010s: seized aircraft, a simulator and the first US advisers

The service has had to make do. In December 2014 Diálogo reported that a Beechcraft King Air F90 seized on 16 December 2013, after it had flown from Cali in Colombia with about a tonne of drugs aboard, had joined the SVA after a ten-month renovation costing about US$75,000. A month earlier the same magazine reported a Piper Seneca III flight simulator worth about US$305,000 at Juan Santamaría International Airport, and quoted the Minister of Public Security, Celso Gamboa Sánchez; it gave the SVA 30 pilots, 11 mechanics and 17 aircraft, 14 fixed-wing and three helicopters. From 16 May to 9 June 2018 a nine-strong team from the US Air Force’s 571st Mobility Support Advisory Squadron ran its first mission in Costa Rica, training 88 SVA members and helping to validate more than US$250,000 of repairs to B200 Super King Airs.

2019–2023: the UH-1ST helicopters

The largest change came from Washington. In 2019 the US State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) donated four Bell UH-1ST helicopters — twin-engined, night-vision compatible, with armoured cabins — in a programme Diálogo valued at US$48 million, including two years of training; they arrived aboard a US Air Force C-17. Diálogo named Captain Juan Luis Vargas as SVA commander at the time. The aviation programme trained pilots, mechanics and technicians, and in March 2023 the US Embassy reported that Yuriana Arnesto Segura, who joined the SVA in 2011, had become its first woman certified as UH-1ST pilot in command. The good side is a real night and bad-weather helicopter capability; the other side is a fleet whose newest and largest aircraft depend on a foreign donor’s training and support.

2024–2026: what is known today, and what is not

What the SVA flies in 2026 is not published in any official list reached for this page. English Wikipedia gives four UH-1s, two MD 600s, an MD 500, two Harbin Y-12 transports and a Super King Air 350 on order, citing a 2018 Air International report; whether that King Air was delivered was not confirmed. In September 2024 a conference of Central American and Caribbean air chiefs noted Costa Rica’s recent joining of SICOFAA, the cooperation system of the American air forces. In January 2026 the 571st returned for a multi-week engagement on maintenance, flight safety, logistics, ISR and base defence, and in the same month Captain Javier Moreira, the SVA’s director, took part in Operation Blue Marlin, a US-led counter-narcotics operation. No aircraft deliveries, losses or retirements between 2024 and 2026 were found in the sources reached.

Huidige vloot en bestellingen

Beechcraft, MD Helikopters, Klok, Harbin

Voormalige vloot

Cessna, Noord-Amerikaanse luchtvaart