No Chilean squadron has a longer link with Cerro Moreno than Grupo de Aviación N° 8. F-16.net, whose unit histories are the most detailed available, records its formation in 1946 at Quintero, on the coast north of Valparaíso, with North American B-25J Mitchells, and its move to Cerro Moreno in 1954 as part of what is now the V Air Brigade.

Its aircraft trace the air force’s changing suppliers. Douglas B-26C Invaders followed in 1955, Hawker Hunters in 1973, and in 1995 ex-Belgian Mirage 5 Elkans, bought at a time when US fighters were still out of reach. When budgets ruled out more new F-16s, Chile bought 18 used Dutch F-16s with the mid-life update in 2005; F-16.net says Grupo 8 received its first in 2007 and the last within eight months, while the same site’s Chilean programme page dates the first deliveries to August 2006.

The squadron’s motto is Predominio. In May 2026 one of its pilots, Lt Francisca Caces, became the first woman to qualify on the F-16 in Chile; Infodefensa reported the air force describing her as the first in South America.

The F-5 arrived at Cerro Moreno just in time. Chile ordered 15 F-5Es and 3 F-5Fs under Peace Llama, and the first four landed here on 25 July 1976. Months later the US Kennedy Amendment cut off American arms support to Chile’s military government, and during the Beagle crisis of 1978 Wikipedia records that the F-5s Chile had received arrived without armament.

Grupo 7, which had moved to Cerro Moreno with the F-5 after flying Vampires, F-80Cs and Hunters from Los Cerrillos, kept the Tigers for 34 years. In 1992–1993 IAI, ENAER and DTS rebuilt them as the Tigre III with an Israeli radar, Python missiles and a helmet sight; in 1996 they gained a refuelling probe.

In March 2010 Grupo 7 gave up the F-5 and the aircraft went to Grupo 12 at Punta Arenas, where they still fly. Grupo 7 received the second batch of 18 ex-Dutch F-16 MLUs from late 2010. Its motto is Hostem Repellas Acriter.

Salitre — Spanish for saltpetre, the nitrate once mined in the Atacama — is the exercise that brings other American air forces to Cerro Moreno. Infodefensa reports that the FACh took over responsibility for organising, planning and running it in 2004.

The 2022 edition gives an idea of its scale. Argentina sent A-4AR Fightinghawks and IA-63 Pampa IIIs, Brazil F-5EMs and a KC-390, and the FACh put up almost its whole front line: A-36 Toquis, A-29s, both F-16 versions, F-5 Tigre IIIs, MH-60M Black Hawks, Bell 412s, a KC-130R, a KC-135E and the E-3D Sentry.

Salitre 2026, described as the fifth edition, was inaugurated at Cerro Moreno on 29 June 2026 and ran until 12 July with Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay and the United States. Its director, Gen. Máximo Venegas, head of the FACh Combat Command, said it introduced cyber operations to integrate the participants as a coalition. Infodefensa did not publish total aircraft or personnel numbers.

Like Iquique, Cerro Moreno shares its runway with a civil airport. The AIP lists Antofagasta’s Andrés Sabella airport as operated by the DGAC, with one asphalt runway, 01/19, 2,800 m long and 50 m wide, 139 m above sea level — long enough for the tankers and the E-3D that join Salitre.

English Wikipedia lists the V Air Brigade’s units at Cerro Moreno as Grupos 7 and 8, the 21st Air Defence Squadron, the 31st Telecommunications Squadron and the 41st Aviation Infantry Squadron. The brigade’s commander in 2025, Brig. Gen. Humberto Fernández, said the region needed a helicopter able to rescue at least two people anywhere in Antofagasta; the regional council paid US$8.5 million for a used H145, with about US$1 million a year budgeted to run it.