Built an air arm almost from nothing to support river flotillas and bomb Peruvian garrisons.

On 1 September 1932 Peruvian civilians and soldiers occupied Leticia. Colombia then had eleven instructors, four CW-14R Ospreys and one Falcon. Congress paid for a crash programme: four Junkers F 13s, four W 34s, three K 43s, six Ju 52s, two Dornier Merkurs, four Dornier Wal flying boats, 20 Falcon F-8Fs and 30 Hawk IIs. German pilots of the SCADTA airline, led by Herbert Boy, flew many of them. On 14 February 1933 Peruvian aircraft attacked the Colombian flotilla at Tarapacá; Spanish Wikipedia says three Colombian Hawk IIs drove them off and Colombian bombers dropped 12 heavy and 47 light bombs on the garrison the same day. On 26 March eleven Colombian aircraft bombed Güepí. The last air action, on 8 May 1933 over the Peruvian seaplane base at Río Algodón, ended with the Peruvian pilot Américo Vargas shot down, according to Wikipedia.

Resultado Ceasefire under League of Nations mediation on 24 or 25 May 1933 (sources differ); the Rio de Janeiro Protocol of 24 May 1934 confirmed Colombian sovereignty over Leticia.

Air-to-air claims are drawn from Wikipedia and are each side’s accounts; Spanish Wikipedia notes conflicting versions of whether Colombian aircraft were shot down. The Peruvian aircraft claimed on 18 February 1933 at Chavaco Island and the identity of the aircraft lost on 8 May could not be confirmed from primary sources.

Voando para

Aviación Militar (Colombian military aviation)

Onde

Putumayo and Amazon rivers, Leticia, Tarapacá, Güepí

Ao lado de

Sem força aérea aliada

Contra

Peru

Aeronave

Curtiss Hawk II, Curtiss Falcon, Curtiss-Wright Osprey, Junkers Ju 52, F 13, W 34, K 43, Dornier Wal

Missões

Não consta nas fontes consultadas.

Perdas

4 aircraft · 8 killedSpanish Wikipedia gives four pilots, four mechanics and four aircraft lost, mostly in accidents; English Wikipedia says four pilots died in four non-combat accidents. Total Colombian deaths were about 40 in combat and 150–250 from disease.

Fontes

Wikipédia · Wikipédia · Wikipedia (es) · Wikipedia (es)

Patrolled the Caribbean coast after Colombia broke with the Axis; no combat with enemy forces is recorded.

Colombia broke relations with the Axis powers in December 1941. On 23 June 1942 a German submarine sank the Colombian schooner Resolute about 50 miles north-west of San Andrés. A patrol squadron flew the Falcons along the coast and replaced them in 1943 with AT-6 Texans, staying active until 1945.

Resultado Patrols ended in 1945.

No Colombian attack on a submarine is recorded in the sources checked. Colombia’s later Korean War contribution (1951–1954) was an infantry battalion and three frigates, with no air component recorded.

Voando para

Aviación Militar

Onde

Caribbean coast and San Andrés

Ao lado de

Estados Unidos

Contra

Alemanha

Aeronave

Curtiss Falcon, North American AT-6 Texan

Missões

Não gravado.

Perdas

Nenhuma informação foi encontrada nas fontes verificadas.

Fontes

Wikipédia · Wikipedia (es) · Wikipédia

Close air support, bombing of guerrilla camps, night gunship work, helicopter assault, transport and surveillance.

For most of its existence the air force’s war has been at home. Through the 1980s and 1990s A-37s, T-37Cs, Broncos and improvised DC-3 gunships supported the army against the FARC and ELN; Plan Colombia from 2000 added radars, surveillance aircraft and helicopter mobility. The Super Tucano flew the type’s first combat mission on 18 January 2007, and precision strikes killed three members of the FARC secretariat: Raúl Reyes in Ecuador in 2008 (see Operation Phoenix), Mono Jojoy in Operation Sodoma in September 2010 and Alfonso Cano in Operation Odiseo in 2011, when five Super Tucanos bombed his camp. On 2 July 2008 Operation Jaque freed 15 hostages, including Íngrid Betancourt. After the 2016 accord armed groups regrouped; the Defence Minister said in September 2026 that they had grown from about 15,000 to about 29,000 members in four years.

Resultado The FARC signed a final peace accord on 24 August 2016, revised and approved by Congress in November 2016 after the 2 October referendum rejected the first text by 50.2 to 49.8 per cent. Fighting with the ELN and dissident groups continues.

Air strikes on camps where recruited minors were present have been the subject of court cases; see the 2025–2026 entry. Operation names and dates other than those listed were not confirmed in the sources checked.

Voando para

Colombian Air Force / Colombian Aerospace Force

Onde

All of Colombia, especially the south, the eastern plains, Cauca, Catatumbo and Guaviare

Ao lado de

United States (aid under Plan Colombia)

Contra

FARC-EP, ELN, FARC dissident fronts and Other armed groups

Aeronave

A-37B, T-37C, OV-10, AC-47T, Kfir, A-29 Super Tucano, UH-1H, UH-60/AH-60L Arpía

Missões

No consolidated figure is published.

Perdas

No consolidated figure. Recorded losses include at least one OV-10 in combat and an A-29 near Jambaló, Cauca, on 11 July 2012.

Fontes

Wikipédia · Wikipédia · Wikipédia · Wikipédia · Wikipédia · Infodefensa · El Tiempo

Bombed the FARC camp of Raúl Reyes about 1.8 km inside Ecuador, followed by a ground assault with helicopters.

The strike began at 00:25 on 1 March 2008 against a camp across the Putumayo river in Ecuador; Super Tucanos took part according to Wikipedia’s Super Tucano article. Colombia’s position, stated by President Álvaro Uribe, was that it had taken “another step against terrorism, which does not respect borders”; he assumed full responsibility. Ecuador’s position, stated by President Rafael Correa, was that the raid was an aggression and a violation of its sovereignty, and that rebels had been killed in their sleep; Ecuador recalled its ambassador and broke relations on 3 March. Venezuela expelled Colombia’s ambassador and moved troops to the border, and Nicaragua broke relations on 6 March. An OAS resolution described the incursion as a violation of Ecuadorian sovereignty without condemning Colombia.

Resultado Raúl Reyes was killed; Ecuador broke relations on 3 March 2008 and the crisis was defused at the Rio Group summit on 7 March.

Casualty figures differ between sources (21 to 22 FARC dead) and the status of the Mexican and Ecuadorian dead was contested by the two governments. The exact aircraft numbers were not confirmed.

Voando para

Colombian Air Force

Onde

Angostura, Sucumbíos province, Ecuador

Ao lado de

Sem força aérea aliada

Contra

FARC-EP

Aeronave

A-29 Super Tucano, Helicopters

Missões

Ecuador’s defence minister said five satellite-guided bombs were used; Spanish Wikipedia mentions four helicopters.

Perdas

0 aeronaves · 1 mortoOne Colombian soldier, Carlos Hernández, was killed. Spanish Wikipedia gives 22 FARC dead including Reyes, four Mexican students and one Ecuadorian, Franklin Aisalla, whose identity Ecuador disputed; English Wikipedia gives Reyes and at least 20 more FARC members.

Fontes

Wikipédia · Wikipedia (es) · Wikipédia

Intercepts suspect aircraft, forces them to land and, under the programme’s rules, may use force against those that refuse.

The US-backed Air Bridge Denial programme ran in Colombia and Peru from the 1990s. It was suspended in April 2001 after a Peruvian aircraft shot down a missionary floatplane, killing Veronica Bowers and her daughter, and was restarted in Colombia in August 2003 with additional safeguards. From 2000 to 2008 the United States spent US$62 million on it, giving the Colombian air force seven surveillance aircraft and radar support. A 2010 GAO report found its effect on trafficking “difficult to assess”. Wikipedia records that a Hawker 800 carrying 1.2 tonnes of cocaine was shot into the sea in 2015.

Resultado Continuando.

The 2015 Hawker 800 case is attributed to Wikipedia only; no official tally of forced landings or shoot-downs was found.

Voando para

Colombian Air Force

Onde

Colombian airspace and coast

Ao lado de

Estados Unidos

Contra

Drug-trafficking flights

Aeronave

A-29 Super Tucano, Kfir, Surveillance aircraft

Perdas

Nenhum registro.

Fontes

Wikipédia · Wikipédia · Wikipédia

Bombing of camps of FARC dissident fronts and the ELN; Kfir and Super Tucano patrols; gunship and helicopter support.

Under President Petro air strikes were rare, but on 12 November 2025 a strike on a dissident camp in Guaviare killed 19 people, according to Wikipedia’s chronology. After Abelardo de la Espriella took office on 7 August 2026 the strikes resumed: against the ELN in Catatumbo on 10 or 11 August, against the Calarcá dissidents at El Retorno, Guaviare, on 27 August (Operation Amón) and against the Mordisco faction in Guaviare on 30 or 31 August. El Tiempo reports that the Ombudsman confirmed one 16-year-old killed in Catatumbo and Medicina Legal three minors aged 15 and 16 at El Retorno, with at least six minors in all. Lawyers filed tutelas; a Bogotá family court first suspended strikes where minors were present and on 16 September 2026 lifted the suspension under an ‘enhanced precaution’ standard, and a third court ordered suspension in Cauca. The government and the military opposed the suspension, arguing it would encourage armed groups to use children as shields; Defence Minister Jorge Mora said the state must “atacar con todas las capacidades”. The government appealed on 21 September 2026.

Resultado Continuing under court-imposed precautions.

Dates differ by one day between El Tiempo reports. The minors’ deaths are reported as findings of the Ombudsman and Medicina Legal; the government’s position is that the strikes were lawful operations against armed groups that recruit children. The number of minors killed in the November 2025 Guaviare strike was not confirmed in the sources reached.

Voando para

Colombian Aerospace Force

Onde

Guaviare, Catatumbo, Cauca and the Caribbean north

Ao lado de

Sem força aérea aliada

Contra

FARC dissident fronts (Iván Mordisco, Calarcá), ELN and ACSN

Aeronave

A-29 Super Tucano, Kfir C10/C12, AC-47T, AH-60L Arpía, C-130H

Perdas

No air force combat losses reported in the sources checked.

Fontes

Wikipédia · El Tiempo · El Tiempo · El Tiempo · El Tiempo · Infodefensa