Base Aérea Río Gallegos upgraded
The Fuerza Aérea Argentina (FAA, Argentine Air Force) will upgrade Base Aérea Río Gallegos to X Brigada Aérea. To strengthen the defence of the Southern part of the country, three IA-63 Pampa III from Grupo Aéreo 6 de Caza (G6C) are now based there.
These aircraft, A-701, A-702 and A-708 arrived here on Tuesday 7 February 2023 and will be permanently detached with support from G6C.
The IA-63 Pampa is an advanced jet trainer with combat capability, produced in Argentina by Fabrica Militar de Aviones (FMA) with assistance from Dornier of Germany.
Although influenced by the Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet design, the Pampa differs in being a smaller aircraft, it is also single-engined and has straight supercritical wings rather than the swept ones of the Alpha Jet. 
The Pampa prototype made its first flight on 6 October 1984.
In October 2013, the FAA ordered forty new IA-63 Pampa GT Phase 3 jet trainers. It took until 2015 before a prototype of the third version of the IA-63 was introduced to the press. However, rampant inflation and a severe recession made it impossible for the Argentine government to finance the manufacturing of any of the promised aircraft.
The first Pampa III, serial E-824, made its maiden flight on 21 September 2018. In total six have been delivered in the period October 2019 to March 2020 and two former test aircraft were reregistered. In May 2021, the FAA ordered an additional six aircraft plus three Pampa II jet trainers, serials E-809, E-811 and E-812, to be upgraded to the Phase 3 version.
According to the Scramble database the following IA-63 Pampa III are known:
The current Brigada Aérea air bases are:
For details on the based squadrons for the above mentioned Brigada Aérea air bases please visit the Argentina Air Order of Battle.
Photos by Patrick van Stiphout/Ton van Bakel and Fuerza Aérea Argentina