Budget Issues Crippling Uruguayan Naval Aviation
Chile’s Navy has offered three recently retired Cessna O-2 SKYMASTER aircraft to the Uruguayan Navy in an effort to ameliorate some of the crippling issues the latter faces as a result of its very poor budget situation.
Undergoing one of the most critical periods since its creation, Uruguayan Naval Aviation currently has just two aircraft available for patrol and SAR missions – a pair of Beechcraft B-200T SUPER KING AIRs – and just two T-34-C1 TURBO MENTORs in the primary training role. The latter have a theoretical secondary light attack role, but their capacity for such missions is strictly limited. In addition the navy operates two helicopters – an MBB BO-105-PAH1 and a single Helibras AS355-F2 ESQUILO.