On Monday, August 29, the Colombian Air Force —FAC— announced that in the skies of the Colombian Caribbean coast, US-supported military exercises.
These maneuvers are carried out within the framework of the Lightning VII operation, which began on Sunday 28. In fact, the institution indicated through a statement that their objective is to train techniques, procedures and tactics, as well as strengthen interoperability and that for it, They have had the support of North American F-16 and Colombian K-fir aircraft, whose useful life is completed in December 2023.
Likewise, the FAC announced that these training sessions will include the participation of countries such as French Guiana and Chile as observers. In addition, they specified that these are part of the institution’s international training schedule, hence the reason why they are held in Colombian airspace.
In this sense, the Air Force explained that since 2014, the Operation Lightning it has had the observation of different countries; in fact, in 2018 and 2019 this work was led by the United States National Guard and the United States Air Force. A year later, the French Air Force also joined as overseer of military training.
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It is worth noting that this might be the penultimate exercise to be carried out with FAC K-fir planes, since several days ago the Minister of Defense, Ivan Velasquez, considered the idea of changing this fleet, taking into account that its useful life will end in December of next year.
In this regard, the head of the military portfolio explained that this is an issue “that is being evaluated on the capabilities of the public force.” In addition to that, he stated that “There is indeed a useful life that is already close to the end of several of these pieces of equipment” and despite the fact that they are evaluating the situation, “what has to be ensured is that it cannot reduce the capacity of the public force at this time.”
Velásquez clarified that not only would the fleet of Kfir aircraft be renewed, but also that a general assessment of all the equipment in the company would be taken into account. Air Force Colombian. It should be noted that the governments of former presidents Juan Manuel Santos and Ivan Duque did not go ahead with the purchase of new aircraft due to the high costs they represented in the national budget.
Regarding the exercises carried out in the Caribbean this Monday, the institution specified that they seek to have their crews constantly trained, in order to strengthen “distinctive capacities that allow them to fulfill the constitutional mission of guaranteeing the defense of sovereignty , independence, territorial integrity, constitutional order, and contribute to the purposes of the State”.
It should be noted that K-Fir aircraft are used in bombing military once morest illegal structures and guerrilla camps; However, the Defense Minister also indicated a few days ago that these operations are suspended whenever there are minors involved or a high risk to civilians.
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