Every conflict the Chilean Air Force has been part of
The air force’s only combat has been against its own country: the mutinous fleet at Coquimbo in 1931 and La Moneda on 11 September 1973, whose times and details come from published accounts that disagree; findings on deaths and torture in the years that followed are those of the Rettig (1991) and Valech (2004) commissions. Chile fought no one in the Beagle crisis of 1978 or the Falklands/Malvinas war of 1982, which the United Kingdom calls the Falkland Islands and Argentina the Islas Malvinas; the accounts of British operations from Chilean territory are British. Where a consolidated sortie or loss figure exists in the official record it is given here; where accounts disagree, the range is shown and the disagreement named. Blank cells are blank because no figure could be verified, not because the fighting was small.
From the naval mutiny of 1931 to the UN mission in Haiti.
| Conflito | Anos | Contra | Aeronave principal | Missões | Aeronave perdida | |
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| The 1931 naval mutinythe bombing of the fleet at CoquimboChilean Air Force | 1931 | Mutinous sailors of the Chilean Navy | Junkers R-42, Curtiss Falcon, Vickers Vixene mais 2 | 1 | ||
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Attacked the mutinous fleet from the air on the government’s orders. Eighteen months after it was formed, the air force went to war against its own navy. Sailors angry at Depression pay cuts seized the fleet at Coquimbo and the base at Talcahuano on 31 August 1931. On 6 September the air force sent two Junkers R-42 heavy bombers, 14 Curtiss Falcon and Vickers Vixen light bombers and transports converted into bombers against the ships off Coquimbo. Spanish Wikipedia also lists two Vickers-Wibault 121s and two Ford Trimotors. The bombing did little damage — one hit on the submarine Quidora — and one Falcon was shot down. But the attack, together with the army’s action at Talcahuano, persuaded the sailors to give up, and the air force counts it as its baptism of fire. Resultado The mutineers surrendered unconditionally on 7 September 1931; none were executed and all were pardoned within a year. Aircraft numbers come from secondary accounts drawing on William F. Sater (1980) and Spanish-language studies.
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| The coup of 11 September 1973the bombing of La MonedaChilean Air Force | 1973 | Government of President Salvador Allende | Caçador de Hawker | 0 | ||
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Attacked the presidential palace, the president’s residence and radio transmitters during the military coup against President Salvador Allende. The air force commander, General Gustavo Leigh, signed the coup document and ordered La Moneda to be bombed. Hunters of Grupo 7 flew from their base at Concepción. Under what Wikipedia calls Operation Silence they first knocked out the transmitters of pro-government radio stations, then fired Sura rockets into La Moneda in four passes. The accounts do not agree on the time: Admiral Patricio Carvajal put it between 11:52 and 12:08, the flight leader Colonel Mario López Tobar a few minutes before 11:30, and Leigh after 12. A second pair attacked the Tomás Moro residence and, according to Spanish Wikipedia, one rocket hit the FACh hospital by mistake. The air force also turned on its own: General Alberto Bachelet was held at the Air War Academy, where Wikipedia says he was tortured, and died in custody on 12 March 1974. The Rettig (1991) and Valech (2004) commissions later documented the human rights violations of the period. Resultado The palace defenders held out until about 14:30; Allende died inside. A 2011 scientific autopsy concluded that he took his own life; some forensic experts have disputed it. The junta, with Leigh as air force member, ruled until 1990. Times, pilot identities and damage come from published accounts that disagree. Findings on deaths and torture are those of Chile’s truth commissions; Leigh was detained in one investigation but released by the Supreme Court under the Amnesty Law, and died in 1999.
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| The Beagle crisisOperation SoberaníaChilean Air Force | 1978 | Argentina (no combat) | Northrop F-5E, Caçador de Hawker, Cessna T-37 (armed) | 0 | 0 | |
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Prepared to defend Chile against an Argentine attack that was called off; no air combat took place. The closest Chile came to a foreign war in the 20th century. Argentina planned to seize the islands south of the Beagle Channel on the night of 22 December 1978, with air strikes to follow at dawn. The FACh was weak: the US Kennedy Amendment embargo of 1976 cut off spares and weapons, the UK was holding back Hunter engines, and Wikipedia says the F-5s had arrived without armament. The air force armed its T-37 trainers as stopgap attack aircraft. The invasion was cancelled hours before it was due to begin. Resultado Argentina cancelled Operation Soberanía on 22 December 1978 after Pope John Paul II’s intervention; papal mediation led to the 1984 Treaty of Peace and Friendship. Argentine plans are described from Argentine and secondary sources; the claim that the F-5s were unarmed and the figure of 16 aircraft conflict with the 18 delivered.
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| The Falklands/Malvinas warChile as a non-belligerent neighbourChilean Air Force | 1982 | 0 | 0 | |||
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Chile was neutral and not a belligerent. British accounts describe UK operations that used Chilean territory, and the FACh commander later said he worked for Argentina’s defeat. The United Kingdom calls the territory the Falkland Islands and Argentina the Islas Malvinas; the UN uses Falkland Islands (Malvinas) and the sovereignty dispute is unresolved. Chile, still in its own dispute with Argentina over the Beagle Channel, stayed formally neutral. According to British accounts summarised by Wikipedia, a Marconi radar crewed by RAF personnel in civilian clothes watched southern Argentine air bases from Chilean Tierra del Fuego (Operation Fingent); a Nimrod flew signals intelligence sorties from Isla San Félix (Operation Acme); a plan to base two RAF Canberra PR.9s in Chilean markings at Punta Arenas was dropped; and a Royal Navy Sea King landed south of Punta Arenas, its crew surrendering to Chilean police on 25 May. In September 2005 General Fernando Matthei, FACh commander in 1982, said on television that he had done everything possible so that Argentina would lose. Resultado After the war more Hunters and, later, three Canberra PR.9s reached the FACh, which Wikipedia links to the support arrangements. Chilean governments have not published an official account; details rest on British sources and Matthei’s 2005 statement. |
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| UN Stabilisation Mission in HaitiMINUSTAHChilean Air Force | 2004–2017 | Helicópteros | ||||
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Provided helicopter units to the UN mission. Chile was one of the Latin American countries that made up most of MINUSTAH, which ran from 1 June 2004 to 15 October 2017, and two Chilean generals served as interim force commanders. The present FACh commander, General Hugo Rodríguez, commanded helicopter units in the mission. Types, dates and numbers of the FACh detachment were not found in the sources reached. Resultado MINUSTAH ended on 15 October 2017. Thinly sourced; the detachment’s composition is unconfirmed.
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Nada corresponde a essa pesquisa.
Cada número, verificado
- The Clinic: General Hugo Rodríguez González, nuevo comandante en jefe de la FACh (21 October 2022)Designated by President Boric 21 October 2022; took office 5 November 2022 at El Bosque; four-year term; career incl. helicopter units in Haiti.
Dados verificados em 01/10/2026. Back to the Chilean Air Force.