{"id":59543,"date":"2025-05-10T22:35:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-10T20:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=59543"},"modified":"2026-05-11T04:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T02:49:12","slug":"the-helicopters-and-fixed-wing-aircraft-of-the-spanich-civil-guard-air-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/05\/10\/the-helicopters-and-fixed-wing-aircraft-of-the-spanich-civil-guard-air-service\/","title":{"rendered":"The helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft of the Spanish Civil Guard Air Service"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Civil Guard, founded on March 28, 1844, is one of the most highly valued and beloved institutions in Spain.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/08\/12\/the-spectacular-rescue-of-a-mountaineer-by-a-bo-105-of-the-civil-guard-at-2450-meters\/\">The spectacular rescue of a mountaineer by a Bo-105 of the Civil Guard at 2,450 meters<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/04\/05\/the-visit-of-the-civil-guard-to-the-b-52h-wise-guy-bomber-on-its-deployment-in-spain\/\">The visit of the Civil Guard to the B-52H 'Wise Guy' bomber on its deployment in Spain<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>In addition to land and sea resources, <strong>this military security force<\/strong>, similar in nature and functions to the French National Gendarmerie and the Italian Carabinieri, <strong>has an aircraft unit: the Air Service (SAER)<\/strong>, which operates helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles (also known as drones). <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@flybywire-aviation\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fly By Wire Aviation<\/a> (a channel I recommend subscribing to if you enjoy the world of aviation) <strong>has published a report today showing the SAER aircraft and interviewing one of its pilots<\/strong> (The video is in Spanish, you can activate automatic English subtitles in the bottom bar of the player)::<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Servicio A\u00e9reo de la Guardia Civil SAER\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eTBwv-5gcUo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>The SAER was founded in 1973 under the name of the Civil Guard Helicopter Section<\/strong>, initially based in Cuatro Vientos (Madrid) and operating <strong>two MBB B\u00f6-105 helicopters purchased in December 1972<\/strong>, an excellent model manufactured in Germany, to which two more units were added that same year. <strong>In July 1973, the Helicopter Section moved its base to Colmenar Viejo<\/strong>, the headquarters of the Spanish Army's Airmobile Forces (FAMET).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54510348769_dd7c2dfc6d_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54510348769_dd7c2dfc6d_o.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>In 1978, the Helicopter Section was renamed the Civil Guard Helicopter Group (AHEL)<\/strong>, moving its facilities to the Torrej\u00f3n de Ardoz Air Base in Madrid, where it continues to operate today. <strong>The AHEL operated a total of 28 B\u00f6-105s<\/strong> (10 of them provided by FAMET) <strong>and 8 MBB\/Kawasaki BK-117s<\/strong> (4 of them provided by the Institute for Nature Conservation, ICONA). <strong>Currently, 5 B\u00f6-105s and 3 BK-117s remain in service.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54509291022_2f2335e545_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54509291022_f02b5de101_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Eurocopter EC-135 helicopters (now known as Airbus Helicopters H-135) began arriving at the end of 2003<\/strong> to replace the already aging B\u00f6-105 and BK-117 helicopters. However, their replacement has been postponed since <strong>only 13 of the 31 EC-135s originally planned<\/strong> arrived.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54510161731_4ecb00e56a_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54510161731_ae9d91760b_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>In 2008, the AHEL changed its name to the current Air Service<\/strong> when it incorporated the Civil Guard's first fixed-wing aircraft: <strong>two CASA CN-235MPA twin-engine maritime patrol aircraft<\/strong>, acquired mainly to support the Civil Guard's Maritime Service.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54510424333_91cd504305_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54510424333_91cd504305_o.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The renewal of the helicopter fleet continued with <strong>the incorporation in 2016 of four Eurocopter AS-365N3 Dauphins<\/strong>, provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and used mainly for maritime surveillance missions.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54510514140_a01f05b6cd_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54510514140_8eeab76e57_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>In 2020, SAER received its third fixed-wing aircraft, a twin-engine Beechcraft Super King Air 350i<\/strong>, equipped with an electro-optical optronic camera and meteorological radars and dedicated mainly to maritime surveillance missions.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54509290972_8d9122bafb_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54509290972_54abfedba6_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Since October 2022, the SAER has received the new Airbus Helicopters H135P3H<\/strong>, of which a total of 9 units have been ordered, which added to the older EC-135s would complete a fleet of 22 helicopters, which are still insufficient to replace the old B\u00f6-105 and BK-117 helicopters.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54510161726_f70a47b9b7_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54510161726_ebdecc6730_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Currently, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/guardiacivil\/status\/1904412937063895152\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the SAER has its main base in Torrej\u00f3n and other bases<\/a> in A Coru\u00f1a, the Balearic Islands, Fuerteventura, Granada, Huesca, Le\u00f3n, Logro\u00f1o, M\u00e1laga, Murcia, Oviedo, Rota (C\u00e1diz), Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Seville and Valencia. <strong>In addition, it has two detachments in Mauritania and Senegal<\/strong>, dedicated mainly to combating illegal immigration.<\/p>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Main image: Fly By Wire Aviation. Other photos: Guardia Civil.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Civil Guard, founded on March 28, 1844, is one of the most highly valued and beloved institutions in Spain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19534,11547],"tags":[7490,24408,3936,19910,3924,5421,24407,11111,17940],"class_list":["post-59543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-portada-eng","category-security-forces","tag-airbus-helicopters-h135","tag-beechcraft-super-king-air-350i","tag-casa-cn-235","tag-civil-guard-air-service","tag-eurocopter-as-365-dauphin","tag-mbb-bo105","tag-mbb-kawasaki-bk-117","tag-spanish-civil-guard","tag-torrejon-de-ardoz-air-base"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-15 06:12:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}