O INFANTARIA DA AERONÁUTICA:

The Air Base Ground Defense and Special Operations Branch of the Brazilian Air Force.


INDEX

INTRODUCTION
ORDER OF BATTLE
ORGANIZATION
BATALHÃOS DE INFANTARIA DA AERONÁUTICA
COMPANHIAS DE INFANTARIA DA AERONÁUTICA INDEPENDENTE
ESQUADRÃOS AEROTERRESTRE DE SALVAMENTO
RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING
CULTURE
RANKS
KAFER WAR
UNIFORMS AND EQUIPMENT
 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Dan Hebditch and David Gillon for comments and feedback on the Infantaria and the general nature of the Força Aeréa Brasileira.
 

INTRODUCTION

Often described as the Força Aeréa Brasileira’s private army, the Infantaria da Aeronáutica is a substantial combat force trained and organized primarily for the ground security and defense of FAB installations.  The organization is often considered outsized by foreign observers, but both Argentinean and Brazilian special forces have long histories of striking at enemy aviation assets, and the Infantaria da Aeronáutica has a very real, if specialized, mission requiring robust airbase ground defense and close air defense assets.  The organization has a good reputation among comparable units in allied nations and often trains with similar units, such as the British RAF Regiment, the French Groupement des Fusiliers Commandos de l’Air and USAF Ground Combat and Security Groups.  The organization has a reputation for adaptability, resilience and ferocity, earned, in no small part, by fighting as conventional infantry during the worst urban battles of the 3rd Rio Plata War, when units from southern airbases were pressed into front-line service to help stem the Argentinean advance towards Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

Besides conventional airbase ground defense units, the Infantaria da Aeronáutica is the parent headquarters of the high-profile PARA-SAR combat search and rescue commando force.  Comparable to (and initially modeled on) the United States Air Force’s Pararescuemen, the PARA-SARs  have become the darlings of the Brazilian propaganda effort since the end of the 3rd Rio Plata War, conducting numerous daring (and well publicized) CSAR operations on both sides of the border in the Amazon Basin during Brazil’s ongoing confrontation with the Inca Republic.

INDEX
 

NARRATIVE

Segundo Sargento João Pereira and the other three PARA-SARs of Team 9002 had rigged en route for the parachute jump, their loads of weaponry and medical equipment pre-packed for just such an eventuality.  The radio traffic indicated that Isqueiro-505, a Brazilian Army x-wing transport carrying casualties back from a firefight out in the bush  to the main Brazilian camp outside Bayview had caught a SAM and augered in on the fringes of the K-Zone.  Radio contact with survivors established there were a dozen casualties on the ground, including the pilot and copilot trapped in the crumpled wreckage of the cockpit.  A four ship cell of Quiriquiri reconnaissance and attack tiltwings, arriving on the scene, were dodging automated Snapfires themselves while trying to maintain surveillance of the crash site and Kafer troops who seemed sluggishly bent on converging on Isqueiro-505.

The crash had triggered the release of Arcanjo 101 and 104, orbiting nearby as the operational CSAR reaction force, carrying Pereira’s team on Arcanjo 101 and Team 710, led by 3o Sargento Maria da Silva, on Arcanjo 104, each augmented with a squad of Caçadores Aeroterrestre armed to the teeth for crash site security.  Pereira, da Silva, and the pilots of 101 and 104 opted for a conventional approach after examining video feed from the orbiting Quiriquiris showing the wrecked aircraft plowed into a fallow wheat  field near a burned out settlement.  The two CSAR aircraft would come in fast under the cover of the Quiriquiris, and jump the eight PARA-SARs in to deal with the mass casualty situation on the ground.  They would then orbit, relying on their extensive defensive suites to counter the Snapfire threat, and would hold off on putting in the Caçadores, who were not rigged to jump, unless the Quiriquiris or contact on the ground indicated the enemy was within threatening range.

The basic tactic had worked innumerable times in the Amazon against the Incas.  It had never been tested against the Kafers.

Ten kilometers out from the crash, the two Arcanjos pushed the throttles forward to full military power and came running in, in fixed-wing mode, red-lined at 475kph.  Pereira felt his stomach drop down to the level of his knees as the two aircraft both executed fast, steep pop-ups going from tree-top level to 500 meters altitude.  They did not stay there long.  The aircraft loadmasters lowered the rear cargo ramps as the aircraft started their climb, and Arcanjo 101 was still 25o nose-up when the green jump light came on.

The loadmaster was screaming the go order over the noise of the aircraft, but Pereira and his three other PARA-SARs needed no prompting.  In sequence, each kicked his seventy kilo kit bag towards the ramp, the rollers in the floor sending it sliding, and then ran as best they could with seventy more kilos of gear on after the bag, mindful of the tether linking them to the bag and knowing that a stumble could be disastrous.

Pereira, fourth out the door, was barely away from the aircraft when it dived back towards the ground.  He saw two smoke trails corkscrewing up into the sky, both cut short by laser fire from the invisible Quiriquiris overhead.  His chute deployed almost instantly, as it had to at that altitude.  He had a moment to ensure that his risers were in order, then another moment to ensure he was not coming down into trouble, then the ground rose to meet him and he hit hard, in spite of Beta Canum Venaticorum’s 0.95G gravity, rolling to absorb the energy of the impact.

Soldado 1a Classe Gomes, the junior member of Team 9002 was limping as he unclipped himself from his parachute harness, but flashed Pereira a quick thumbs up and a smile as he unlimbered the crash-saw from his kit bag and slung it over his shoulder.  Otherwise the drop had been textbook perfect, the two PARA-SAR teams both within 100 meters of the crash and each other.

“Shepherd Seven-Ten up and moving,” da Silva reported tersely on her short-range tactical radio, cutting through the buzz of communications between the orbiting aircraft that Pereira was also monitoring.  He quickly echoed her statement as his team started towards the crash.

“Contact, contact, contact . . .”

Pereira did not see the stealthed Quiriquiri, and barely heard it as it passed overhead at thirty meters until it ripple fired ten 70mm rockets into a wooded lot two hundred meters from his team.  Team 9002 hit the ground, squirming for what little cover there was in the open field and scanning for targets.  There were multiple explosions in mid-air as the rocket-firing Quiriquiri’s wingman, higher up on SAM watch, engaged a volley of Snapfires rising up out of the same copse of trees.  One leaked past the defense, and Pereira saw a flash followed by the wingman’s aircraft falling from the sky, no longer invisible, its mimetic skin in tatters.  A pair of parachutes blossomed moments after the ejector seats engaged.

Terceiro Sargento Vilares, 9002’s communications specialist, was in a slight fold in the ground and doing his job without prompting, scanning with his MD-3 assault rifle’s optics and relaying to the orbiting gunships even as Thudgun tracers zipped by as big as bumblebees.  His voice was flat as he spoke.  He had learned his craft in Amazonia, before transferring to Provinicia do Brasil’s 20th Air Force.  Most of the fire direction was automated by the datalink Vilares carried, except for verbal authorization, “Anjinho 220, this is Shepherd Zero Two.  Troops and light SAMs in woodline.  Danger close for thermobarics.  I authenticate ‘Salvador’ and am designating.  You are cleared hot.”

Pereira scanned with his own rifle, seeing the humanoid figures scurrying in the tree line that Vilares was painting.  As team leader, he carried 30mm smoke rounds loaded to mark targets, and he fired his loaded magazine of purple smoke into the wood line, hoping it might prompt the Quiriquiris, if nothing else.  He ejected the spent magazine and reached for another, this one of Proximity Fused HE grenades.

He could distantly hear da Silva on the radio yelling for deployment of the Caçadores and the Flight lead telling her they needed to get the enemy suppressed before he could risk bringing in the Arcanjos in rotary-wing mode to drop them off.

Gomes was hit, a Thudgun round slapping into his helmet and whining off into space as a richochet.

Pereira again did not hear or see the next Quiriquiri making its pass, or releasing the two 500kg laser-guided thermobaric bombs.  He was scanning selectively for targets for his  second magazine of 30mm grenades when the tree line in front of him ceased to exist and the world turned into a flat, roaring thunderclap that seemed to go on forever.

It picked him up and slammed him back into the wheat field.  Even with the acoustic dampers on his helmet’s audio pick ups his ears were ringing as he struggled to pick his rifle back up.

Distantly, and very faintly, he heard da Silva on the radio, telling Arcanjo 101 and 104 to bring in the Caçadores, telling them the local situation was back in hand for the moment.

From Anjos Escuros: Busca e Salvamento no Bello do Kafer
(Dark Angels:  Search and Rescue in the Kafer War)
Falamos Press, Provincia do Brasil, January 2304



ORDER OF BATTLE
(BA = Base Aérea, Air Force Base)

1a Brigada (1a Força Aérea) [SE Brazil]

5o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Afonsos (BAAF)
7o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Canoas (BACO)
8o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Curitiba (BACR)
13o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Galeão (BAGL)
16o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Pôrto Alegre (BAPA)
18o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Ribeiro Preta (BARP)
19o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Santos (BAST)
24o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Santa Maria (BASM)
25o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de São Paulo (BASP)
101a Companhia de Infantaria da Aeronáutica Independente, (BARP)
104a Companhia de Infantaria da Aeronáutica Independente, (BASP)
105a Companhia de Infantaria da Aeronáutica Independente, (BACR)
303o Esquadrão Aeroterrestre de Salvamento
710o Esquadrão Aeroterrestre de Salvamento

2a Brigada (2a Força Aérea) [primarily NE Brazil]

1o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Belém (BABE)
4o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Florianópolis (BAFL)
6oBatalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Fortaleza (BAFZ)
11o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Natal (BANT)
12o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Recife (BARF)
17o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Salvador (BASV)
26o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica,  BA de Belém (BABE)
102a Companhia de Infantaria da Aeronáutica Independente (BASV)
103a Companhia de Infantaria da Aeronáutica Independente (BABE)
1o Esquadrão Aeroterrestre de Salvamento

3a Brigada (3a Força Aérea) [Amazonia]

2o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Boa Vista (BABV)
3o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Humaitá (BAHU)
10o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Jaú (BAJA)
14o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Manaus (BAMN)
20o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Pôrto Velho (BAPV)
23o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Santarém (BASA)
90o Esquadrão Aeroterrestre de Salvamento
204o Esquadrão Aeroterrestre de Salvamento

5a Brigada (5a Força Aérea) [SW Brazil]

9o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Anápolis (BAAN)
15o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Brasília (BABR)
21o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Campo Grande (BACG)
22o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica, BA de Santa Fe do Sul (BASF)
106a Companhia de Infantaria da Aeronáutica Independente (BASF)
107a Companhia de Infantaria da Aeronáutica Independente (BACG)
2o Esquadrão Aeroterrestre de Salvamento
19o Esquadrão Aeroterrestre de Salvamento

6a Brigada (6a Força Aérea da Reserva)

28o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica (reserve CINFA)
29o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica (reserve CINFA)
30o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica (reserve CINFA)
31o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica (reserve CINFA)
32o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica (battle casualty replacements)
33o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica
34o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica
73o Esquadrão Aeroterrestre de Salvamento
74o Esquadrão Aeroterrestre de Salvamento
91o Esquadrão Aeroterrestre de Salvamento

9a Brigada (9a Força Aérea) [Beowulf]

27o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica (detached from 2FA)
7o Esquadrão Aeroterrestre de Salvamento (+) (detached from 2FA)

20a Brigade (20a Força Aérea) [Provincia do Brasil]

40o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica
41o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica
42o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica
43o Batalhão de Infantaria da Aeronáutica [Paulo]
900o Esquadrão Aeroterrestre de Salvamento (-)
 

INDEX

ORGANIZATION

The Infantaria da Aeronáutica is a substantial organization, traditionally divided into four regional brigades on Earth, a fifth on Tirane plus a reserve component brigade and a brigade-equivalent training command.  A sixth brigade headquarters has been raised recently for service in the French Arm.

Brigades are non-tactical headquarters, responsible for the logistics and administrative support of units in their geographic area of responsibility.   These sub units consist of  Batalhãos de Infantaria da Aeronáutica assigned to defend FAB installations as well as mobile Companhias de Infantaria da Aeronáutica Independente, who fulfill a similar security mission for austere provisional airbases, and the elite Esquadrãos Aeroterrestre de Salvamento search and rescue commandos.  The exact number of battalions, independent companies, and CSAR squadrons subordinate to a brigade varies.

Each brigade is commanded by a colonel (Coronel), with battalions run by lieutenant colonels (Tenente-Coronel), and independent companies and squadrons both commanded by majors.  The overall head of the Infantaria da Aeronáutica is a brigadier (Brigadeiro), this being the highest rank held by an infantry-branch officer in over two centuries, since the end of the Age of Recovery.

INDEX
 

BATALHÃOS DE INFANTARIA DA AERONÁUTICA (BINFA)

The bulk of the Infantaria da Aeronáutica consists of the Batalhãos de Infantaria da Aeronautica (BINFA), with one battalion assigned to each of the FAB’s major installations.  The battalions’ primary mission is air base ground defense and local air defense, though a portion of each battalion’s personnel are also trained to conduct peacetime law enforcement activities and certain other specialist roles.  BINFA are organized and trained mostly to deal with the threat posed by Argentinean or Incan special operations units, though those deployed at southern airbases close to Argentina and Uruguay are equipped to deal with more conventional threats to a limited degree.

There are also two BINFA without installation security missions, 26o and 27o BINFA.  These two units are both subordinate to 2a Força Aérea during peacetime and deployed in the northern portion of the country (Belém and Natal, respectively).  Their primary mission, however, is foreign deployments, providing security to FAB assets serving overseas in various capacities (border integrity and similar peacekeeping missions, etc.).  During wartime, their mission would be to establish forward security, along with the  Companhias de Infantaria da Aeronáutica Independente, at captured Argentinean and Uruguayan airfields, civilian Brazilian airfields pressed into military service, etc.

Organization of the Batalhãos de Infantaria da Aeronautica varies by installation, but each battalion is made up of a combination of Aeronautical Infantry Companies  (Companhias de Infantaria da Aeronáutica or CINFA), Aeronautical Security Companies  (Companhia de Segurança da Aeronáutica or COSEA) and Self-Defense Antiaircraft Artillery Companies (Companhia de Artilharia Antiaérea de Autodefesa or CAAAD).  Most BINFA have one or more companies of reservist infantry assigned to them during wartime or other periods of mobilization to augment base security forces.  Companies are numbered sequentially within each BINFA, with 1a Companhia always being the COSEA and 2a Companhia always being the CAAAD.

There are also seven reserve BINFA organized, all subordinate to the 6th Air Force, the FAB’s reserve component, but most also answer to one of the active duty numbered air forces.  Four of these units are administrative and training headquarters for the reserve infantry companies that, during mobilization, are attached to existing BINFA.  A fifth is a holding unit for individual personnel to serve as augmentees and battle casualty replacements to other BINFA component units such as COSEA and CAAADs, and specialty positions.  The remaining two are operational battalions available as a reserve for the Infantaria da Aeronáutica, and subject to various taskings as necessary.

Companhias de Infantaria da Aeronáutica (CINFA)

CINFA are organized like fairly typical light infantry organizations, consisting of a headquarters section, three infantry platoons (Pelotãos de Infantaria), and a weapons platoon (known as a Pelotão de Metralhadoras e Morteiros, literally a “machinegun and mortar platoon” though this does not completely describes its armament in the modern era).

Each rifle platoon consists of a small headquarters squad (platoon leader, platoon sergeant, a medic and two communications specialists) and three nine-man rifle squads, each consisting of a squad leader and two four man fire teams.  Armament within the rifle platoon are MD-3D personal defense carbines for all members of the headquarters squad, while each rifle squad is provided with five MD-3 assault rifles, two MD-7M laser rifles, and two MD-10 light machineguns in the squad-automatic weapon role.  CINFA also have a number of MD-92 combat shotguns available as needed (both for close combat and less-than-lethal applications).

Weapons platoon composition varies depending on the installation and theater of operations.  Those deployed in central and northern Brazil may be considered standard, and consist of a Mortar Squad (Grupo de Morteiros) with nine men and two 8cm mortars, a Machinegun Squad (Grupo de Metralhadoras) with nine men and four MD-10 light machineguns in the sustained fire role, a Plasma Gun Squad (Grupo de Fuzis Altas Energía) with nine men and four MD-2 PGMPs (Brazilian licensed copy of the Mk.2-A2 PGMP), and a Precision Fire Squad (Grupo dos Atiradores de Precisão) with six men armed with six MD-97 gauss sniper rifles and three MD-1 heavy sniper rifles (Brazilian licensed copy of the FTE-10), plus other equipment allowing them to function in a range of military and law enforcement-type sniper roles.

Those Weapons Platoons assigned to forward deployed battalions in southern Brazil (4o, 7o, 8o, 13o, 16o, 21o, and 22o BINFA) add an Anti-Armor Squad (Grupo de Misseis Anticarros) with four Corvo ATGM launchers (as well as two MM-11 Escorpião dual-purpose missile launchers issued per rifle platoon), and replace the Precision Fire Squad with a Combat Walker Squad (Grupo de Cacadores Blindado) equipped with four Zumbi combat walkers, the Brazilian derivative of the BH-21.  The Weapons Platoons in Amazonia double the assigned mortar tubes to four per company  (split into two two-tube squads) and add a battalion-level fire direction team equipped with the light MD-1024 Resposta-Facão (“Response-Machete”) counter-battery radar assigned to the battalion’s Security Company.

Most CINFA rely on lightly armored  range trucks for mobility, though those units in forward areas (again 4o, 7o, 8o, 13o, 16o, 21o, and 22o BINFA) have one company in each battalion equipped with VCI-10 wheeled armored personnel carriers.  Those assigned to the 3rd Air Force in Amazonia typically have eight VCI-10s assigned per battalion, issued as needed to component units and used for both local security as well as convoy escort missions and similar responsibilities.  Most battalions deployed in Amazonia also have complements of small boats and Warbird-type hovercraft available for riverine security patrols (as well as one company typically tasked and trained in fulfilling this role), as 3a Força Aeréa bases tend to be located along the Amazon and other major rivers in the region.

One company of CINFA per battalion are specially trained to perform the law enforcement functions of military police during peacetime.  These personnel are identified in their law enforcement duties by “PM” arm brassards and P-525B side arms carried in this capacity.

On most installations with a PARA-SAR squadron or flight deployed, one to two platoons of the resident BINFA are designated Caçadores Aeroterrestre (“Air-Land Rangers”) and assigned additional duties supporting PARA-SAR search and rescue efforts.  Caçadores Aeroterrestre platoons are organized identically to standard CINFA platoons, though they are better trained in close combat and general light infantry tactics, plus some special mobility training for airmobile and airborne operations.  The Amazonia based BINFA each field a permanent Caçadores Aeroterrestre platoon rather than making this an additional duty for other platoons.  There are currently many in the PARA-SAR community who feel that the Caçadores Aeroterrestre should be permanently assigned to PARA-SAR squadrons to increase collective training and integration, but senior leadership within the Infantaria da Aeronáutica is still undecided on the idea (and, some feel, resistant to it), and the permanent platoons in the Amazon theater is something of a half-measure to address the stated requirement.
 
Companhias de Segurança da Aeronáutica (COSEA)

While the CINFA are generalist formations suitable for a range of combat operations within the framework of the airbase ground defense mission, the Companhias de Segurança da Aeronáutica are specialist formations controlling assets specifically suited for perimeter and site security missions.

Company composition, again, varies somewhat by theater of operations.  Each company includes a Sentry Dog Platoon (Pelotão dos Cãos Sentinelos) with nineteen personnel assigned (sixteen of whom are dog handlers), and a Security Platoon (Pelotão de Segurança) with thirty to forty personnel (depending on the installation) responsible for monitoring various perimeter security and anti-intrusion sensor systems ranging from electrified fences and static cameras to tethered aerostat and static Whisperdrone-type UAVs.  Companies assigned to the Amazon and to forward battalions along the Argentinean and Uruguayan frontiers add a twenty-three man UAV platoon equipped with seven Coruja Preta (Black Owl) short-range reconnaissance and surveillance drones.  Companies in the Amazon, as noted above, also include a four man fire-direction center for CINFA mortar teams, equipped with a MD-1024 Resposta-Facão counter-battery radar system.

Companhia de Artilharia Antiaérea de Autodefesa (CAAAD)

CAAAD are organized to provide for local air defense of Força Aérea Brasileiro bases (the army has responsibility for more general air and strategic defense operations).  Each company consists of a Headquarters Section, an Antiaircraft Laser Section (Seção de Laser Antiaéreo) , a Short Range Air Defense Section (Seção de Misseis Antiaéreo Leve), and a Medium Range Air Defense Section (Seção de Misseis Antiaéreo Médio).  At bases in the southern portion of the country, CAAAD operations are closely integrated with QC-5 Gladiator unmanned air superiority fighters.

The Headquarters Section consists of nineteen men, and is responsible both for coordination of local air defense efforts as well as integration of the base’s air defense assets into the larger air defense effort (the primary contribution a CAAAD can make in the latter case are its six Hidra medium range SAM launchers).  The twenty-one man Energy Weapons Section is tasked with operation of static point defense lasers deployed around FAB bases, usually operating during alert/wartime status from multiple dispersed firing centers.  The Short Range Air Defense Section consists of thirty-seven men, split into a seven man headquarters section and ten three-man firing teams for MM-11 Escorpião-A surface to air missiles (units with the potential to face Argentinean forces are also trained on and issued Escorpião-C anti-tank missiles for the dual-purpose launchers).  The forty-man Medium Range Air Defense Section operates six mobile Hidra medium range air defense missile launchers, plus sensors for the missiles.
 

TYPICAL COMPOSITION OF BINFA, BY BRIGADE
 
 

BRIGADE
CINFA
CINFA (RES)
COSEA
CAAAD
1a Brigada
3
2
1
2
2a Brigada*
1
1
1
1
3a Brigada
3
1
1
1
5a Brigada
3
2
1
2
6a Brigada**
0
3
1
1
9a Brigada
(27o BINFA)***
5
3
3
3
20a Brigada
1
1
1
1
COMPOSITION OF TYPICAL BINFA, BY BRIGADE

* 26o and 27o BINFA organized like 3a Brigada's BINFA
** Both operational BINFA in 6a Brigada providing units to 27o BINFA in the French Arm, circa 2303
*** 27o BINFA substantially reinforced for deployment to French Arm

INDEX

COMPANHIAS DE INFANTARIA DA AERONÁUTICA INDEPENDENTE (CINFAI)

Since the end of the 3rd Rio Plata War, the Infantaria da Aeronáutica has organized seven Companhias de Infantaria da Aeronáutica Independente, or CINFAI.  These units are designed to provide mobile security elements to VTOL and VSTOL capable ground attack and strike aviation units.  These aircraft have a wartime mission of operating from dispersed and austere locations (such as from stretches of Brazil’s excellent road network), and move frequently to avoid enemy detection and attack.  It was felt that tasking BINFA elements to support these units compromised major installation security and required specialist training that overburdened BINFA units, already doubling as military police and CSAR support elements.

CINFAI are organized into a Headquarters Platoon, two Mechanized Infantry Platoons, and a Weapons Platoon.  The Headquarters Platoon has a pair of VCI-10 wheeled APC command vehicles, as well as unarmored wheeled transports, including a two vehicle ambulance section and other logistics and support assets.  Typically, the Headquarters Platoon will be collocated with the several VCAS-10 mobile communications and air traffic control vehicles that serve as the nerve center for remote/provisional airfield operations.

Each Mechanized Infantry Platoon consists of six VCI-10 wheeled armored personnel carriers, and consists of a large (fifty man) dismounted infantry platoon plus the vehicle crews.  The dismounted element consists of four nine-man infantry squads (organized identically to those in CINFA companies), plus an eight-man reconnaissance and patrol squad and a six-man mortar squad with two light 8cm mortars.  Armament for the infantry squads is standard, with each also having an MM-11 multi-purpose missile launch post.  The reconnaissance and patrol squad consists of two fire teams, each with an two MD-7M laser rifles and two MD-3 assault rifles.

The Weapons Platoon consists of a two VCI-10 APCs (used by the platoon leader and platoon sergeant) and a mortar section with two VECO-10 120mm mortar carriers, and an air defense section with four VECO-10 ADA vehicles.

INDEX
 

ESQUADRÃOS AEROTERRESTRE DE SALVAMENTO (EAS)

Unlike the other elements of the Infantaria da Aeronáutica, which use army-style unit nomenclature, the Esquadrãos Aeroterrestre de Salvamento (Air-Land Rescue Squadrons) use air force nomenclature, consisting of a squadron subdivided into a number of subordinate flights (Esquadrilhas).  EAS tend to be generalists, within the parameters of the search and rescue mission, though 1o and 710o EAS, based in coastal regions of the country, tend to be more proficient in maritime rescue operations (a skill they often employ during peacetime emergencies), and 303o EAS, based in the mountainous estado of Rio de Janeiro, is widely regarded as the best mountain-trained squadron.  The Provincia do Brasil based 900o EAS is an extremely generalist formation, but is noted for having a great deal more arctic and high alpine rescue training and experience than their Earth-based counterparts.

Each Esquadrão Aeroterrestre de Salvamento (or EAS) is broken down into a Headquarters and Logistics Flight (Esquadrilha de Comando e Apoios) and four Air-Land Rescue Flights (Esquadrilha Aeroterrestre de Salvamento).  Each EAS is affiliated with one of the FAB’s Esquadrão de Busca e Salvamento (CSAR aviation squadron) flying the S-172 Arcanjo CSAR aircraft.

The Headquarters and Logistics Flight is fairly robust for such organizations, consisting of twenty-seven personnel, only six of whom are PARA-SAR qualified (the squadron commander, flight commander, the squadron warrant officer, and three training/liaison NCOs).  The remainder of the personnel in the flight are supply, communications, and armorer/maintenance specialists who provide a degree of self-support to the squadron, and are configured such that the Headquarters and Logistics Flight can push logistics/communications support teams out to individual Rescue Flights when those elements are operating remotely.  The squadron is commanded by a Major, with a Capitão serving as headquarters flight commander.  The senior NCO role is filled by the squadron’s senior warrant officer (Suboficial), with a 1o Sargento and two 2o Sargentos in the training/liaison positions.  Non-operational, support, personnel range in rank from private soldiers to 2o Sargentos heading the supply, communications, and armorer/maintenance teams.

Air-Land Rescue Flights each consist of eighteen men, including a two man headquarters (a 1o Tenente, or sometimes a junior Capitão, and a Suboficial) and four four-man Rescue Teams (Unidade Aeroterrestre  de Salvamento or UAS).  UAS tend to divide their functions into a medical element, consisting of the team’s second in command and its junior most member, and a communications element, consisting of the team leader and second most junior member (this PARA-SAR carried the team’s primary long-range communications rig).  The medical element is tasked with treatment and extraction, while the communications element manages the ground-portion of a CSAR effort and integrates with aerial elements.  However, all members of the team are fully qualified PARA-SARs, with excellent trauma management and aircraft extraction training, and the medical/communications split in responsibility is ignored as necessary on a mission.

Two UAS per flight are led by 1o or 2o Tenentes, while the other two are led by 2o or senior 3o Sargentos.  The remaining three personnel in the UAS consist of two enlisted airmen (either in the rank of Cabo or  Soldado 1a Classe) and a 3o Sargento.  UAS are sequentially numbered within their squadron, with the squadron number (or first two digits for three digit squadrons) prefixing UAS number, so each UAS within the Air Force is uniquely numbered  For  instance, the Provincia-based 900o Esquadro is made of up UAS 9001 through 9016, with the squadron’s 2a Esquadrilha being made up of UAS 9005-08.

Depending on mission parameters, one or two UAS may be loaded onto a single Arcanjo CSAR aircraft, sometimes augmented by up to a platoon of Caçadores Aeroterrestre if the mission calls for it (when operating with the Caçadores, the senior PARA-SAR on a rescue mission is the operational ground commander, regardless of relative ranks involved).

Equipment for a mission can vary depending on requirements, but PARA-SAR teams usually carry MD-3M3 special operations rifles, with an assortment of other weapons systems available as needed aboard their S-172 Arcanjos, such as MD-7M and MD-8 laser rifles, MD-70 suppressed gauss carbines, MD-92 combat shotguns, etc.  Teams rarely carry support weapons heavier than standard 30mm grenade launchers, however, as personnel tend to deploy with heavy loads of medical gear and (if necessary) specialized extraction equipment, so armament is geared towards personal defense.  If heavier firepower on the ground is called for, Caçadores Aeroterrestre are usually deployed.  The teams also carry extensive amounts of medical equipment, both items they deploy with and heavier and/or more delicate equipment carried on SAR aircraft, such as defibrillators, natural and synthetic blood products requiring refrigeration, oxygen, etc.  Brazilian CSAR aircraft sometimes carry the ubiquitous auto-doc units, but PARA-SAR personnel, like most highly trained medics, are more effective at providing trauma life support to critically injured personnel than the automated units.

PARA-SARs train frequently with their foreign counterparts like the USAF’s Air Commando units and Aerospace Rescue Squadrons, the UK Special Forces establishment, and the French 602e Régiment de Commandos Parachutistes de l'Air.  Exchanges with the special operations communities of Azania, Mozambique, and other African nations are also common, reflecting the tendency for Brazilian military involvement to follow economic motivations.  Off-Earth training deployments with organizations like the Royal Wellonese Air Force’s Air Commando Wing are also common.

INDEX

 
RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING

Enlisted

Presently, enlisted members of the Infantaria da Aeronáutica are volunteers, as are all members of the Força Aérea Brasileiro.  Recruitment is open to Brazilians between the ages of 18 and 32, with specialty and job selection being based on standardized ability testing, the recruit’s preference, and the needs of the service.  The size of the Infantaria da Aeronáutica is such that many recruits are steered towards the organization.  Traditionally, these are recruits who failed to qualify for more technically demanding specialties, but since 3rd Rio Plata War a number of highly qualified volunteers have bolstered the organizations “paper” strength.  All initial enlistments in the FAB are for a period of four years, after which enlisted personnel remaining in service can commit to one to four year contracts, and, barring declared emergency, buy themselves out of their contracts early if they so desire.

The average recruit to the Infantaria da Aeronáutica is a 21 year old Brazilian male (though the FAB has led the Brazilian military in gender integration, and 14% of BINFA personnel are female, with all specialties open to them) who is most likely, typical of modern Brazilians, to self-describe his ethnic background simply as “Brazilian,” and to consider such inquiries as quaint, at best, if not rude (though also like an estimated 75% of Brazilian society, he will be of mixed African-European ancestry to one degree or another).  He generally (~67%) describes his religion as Catholic, but is non-practicing; if he does attend regular religious services he is more likely to list his faith as one of the several evangelical Protestant denominations active in Brazil, Afro-Brazilian Condomblé, or the semi-heretical Africanized Catholic Mass.  He is from an urban or suburban environment and a working class or lower-middle class socioeconomic background.  He is likely to have completed eleven to twelve years of public education and possess a basic technical trade certification or either have passed, or will pass during his enlistment, university entrance examinations.  He is more likely to plan on pursuing further education than the average FAB recruit (this situation being an artifact stemming from the lack of marketable civilian job skills offered by BINFA service).  He is less likely than a recruit entering a more technical field to make a career of FAB service, but retention rates, to date, have been adequate to maintain professional NCO strength as well as generating a significant number of previously-enlisted officers.

Enlisted personnel initially attend the FAB’s standard nine-week basic training program at Base Aérea de Belém (BABE) in the north-eastern part of the country.  Personnel then are sent to Base Aérea e Exécito de Santarém (BASA) for a sixteen week course of advanced training.  The first eight weeks of this program are spent learning basic infantry tactics and techniques, followed by eight weeks of training specific to the air base ground defense and counter-special operations missions.  BASA is best known for being the primary training center for all service’s units operating in the low-intensity conflict in the Amazon, and the FAB’s infantry training program at the base takes advantage of the facilities and OPFOR units to provide a rigorous and demanding training program for recruits.

Enlisted personnel are then generally assigned to a BINFA for a period of twenty-four months, with the first twelve months spent stabilized in an infantry company and further learning basic soldier skills and other on the job training.  After the initial twelve month period (and, for most, promotion to Soldado 1a Classe),  the airman may be sent for additional training to qualify for specialist positions within the CINFA (marksmen, mortar crews, etc.) or cross-posting to a specialty within a COSEA or CAAAD.  A portion of personnel at this point may also be reassigned to CINFAI, though most selected for these units have completed twenty-four months in a BINFA.  As additional professional qualifications carry with them improved pay, attendance of training courses is highly coveted and selection is competitive.  When the system works as it is supposed to, this ensures that training funds are spent on the best and brightest within the Infantaria da Aeronáutica.

Intake of new personnel to BINFA is staggered throughout the year, so that a given infantry training course will usually send all of its personnel to the same two to three BINFA, depending on the month the class graduates.  Casualties in the Amazon theater have disrupted this practice to an extent, with BINFA in the region often drawing individual casualty replacements out of training classes year round.

Officers

Officers are primarily products of the FAB’s service academy outside São Paulo or the various regional military academies with FAB commissioning programs.  Officers destined for the infantry branch are usually selected in the second year of college-level study at their academy, based on standardized test scores, instructor evaluations, and other criteria, reflecting the Brazilian military’s tendency towards earlier specialization in its officer corps than many international counterparts.

A small percentage (approximately 10%) of the overall FAB officer corps are former enlisted personnel commissioned through officer candidate school programs, but these officers are significantly over represented in the Infantaria da Aeronáutica, making up nearly 25% of the force, with almost all being former enlisted infantry personnel.  Officers from academies often tend to live up to the stereotypes for Infantaria officers as those unfit for more intellectually demanding jobs, while those emerging from OCS programs are usually the best and brightest members of the enlisted personnel pool (and usually former members of Caçadores Aeroterrestre units or PARA-SARs).

Officers will initially have four or more years of service academy schooling, or the rigorous nineteen weeks of FAB officer candidate school plus prior military service, before commissioning as Aspirantes and attending a commissioned equivalent of the infantry specialist training.  The officer infantry-training course lasts sixteen weeks and focuses primarily on small unit leadership and generally exposing potential BINFA small unit leaders to deprivation and hardship (again, making the most of the training opportunities offered by BASA).  Officers are generally assigned to a rifle platoon as an initial assignment (though needs of the service sometimes preclude this), and move on to more specialized platoon commands as they gain in experience, before moving upward to company second-in-command and staff positions, etc.

PARA-SARs and Caçadores Aeroterrestre

PARA-SAR search and rescue commandos and, to a lesser extent, the Caçadores Aeroterrestre represent the elite, special operations arm of the Infantaria da Aeronáutica, with the usual stringent requirements for entry.  There are only approximately 500 PARA-SARs on active duty military service in the FAB, plus about half that number in reserve Esquadrãos Aeroterrestre de Salvamento, a level of staffing that allows the organization to be highly selective about personnel.

PARA-SAR selection is open to all enlisted and commissioned members of the FAB, though the physical and field craft requirements of the initial selection process tend to favor current members of the Infantaria da Aeronáutica over other job specialties, and something in excess of 80% of all PARA-SARs come out of the Infantaria.  The seven-week selection process is conducted at BASA, and primarily revolves around the traditional evaluation tool of increasingly stringent timed cross-country land navigation courses, in this case conducted through the jungle terrain of the post.  Those passing the course enter into a one year training pipeline conducted at various army and air force  installations.  Approximately half of this training program is devoted to medical skills, with a focus on trauma management skills suitable to sustain critically injured personnel during a rescue and until they can be aerial evacuated for surgical intervention.  Additional training for PARA-SARs includes close combat skills, aircraft and structural rescue skills, special mobility techniques (such as various forms of parachuting, small boat operations, etc.) and communications, to include proficiency with directing close air support.  The course tends to have an 80% failure rate, with the majority not passing the selection process and most remaining failures being for academic reasons during the medical training portion.

The program was accused in the early 2290s, with some justification, of skewing training too much towards the Amazon theater, and recent courses have sought to correct for this, with exercises carried out at various military training centers and national parks throughout Brazil.  Despite this, most PARA-SARs look towards operational deployment in the Amazon as their current raison d’etre, at least until the eventual war with Argentina breaks out.

Once deployed to an operational unit, PARA-SARs continue to undergo additional training and education.  Typically squadrons rotate through four-month training evolutions, with one flight in each squadron detailed to send personnel to various individual professional development courses, another performing dedicated unit-level training exercises and block leaves, and the remaining two considered operational (usually with one flight on alert and another performing short internal training cycles or administrative duties, on leave, etc.).  In the Amazon this cycle has largely broken down, circa 2303, with all Esquadrilha Aeroterrestre de Salvamento in an operational status, and any significant absences (such as for professional development training) requiring the deployment of UAS from elsewhere in Brazil or the reserves to cover the absence.

Prior to promotion to Flight Leader or SNCO, lieutenants and 1o Sargentos eligible for promotion to Suboficial are required to complete the Search and Rescue Leaders Course (also required of aviators being promoted to Flight leadership positions in Esquadrão de Busca e Salvamento) allowing them to function as ground and air controllers for CSAR operations.  Working relationships between PARA-SARs and CSAR aviation units are very close and rank somewhat informal, so leadership of a given CSAR operation usually is vested in the most experienced leader present, regardless of whether he is an aviator or PARA-SAR.

Caçadores Aeroterrestre undergo an abbreviated selection process (three weeks) also built around timed iterations of long-distance cross country marches, and also conducted at BASA by the same cadre who conduct the initial phases of PARA-SAR training.  They then undergo an identical combat skills training program to that done by PARA-SARs.  Prior to the 3rd Rio Plata War, both potential PARA-SARs and Caçadores Aeroterrestre went through PARA-SAR combat skills phase together, but the decision was made to segregate career tracks during Phase One training for various reasons.  After completion of PARA-SAR Phase One, Caçadores Aeroterrestre further undergo an additional four weeks of close-combat and small unit tactical training, commonly referred to as “Suicide Phase,” referencing the fact, in worst case scenarios, Caçadores Aeroterrestre are deployed primarily to buy time for PARA-SARs and the aircrews they are sent to rescue.

Note that FAB training requirements state than personnel assigned to a platoon coded for Caçadores Aeroterrestre service must complete the required training program within six months of assignment to the unit.  This translates into a high percentage of junior enlisted personnel who have not completed the basic training program for Caçadores, serving alongside NCOs and officers who have done so.  Units serving in the Amazon have managed to side step this gap in training by arranging to have any potential personnel held at BASA and dropped into a Caçadores Aeroterrestre training class before being sent forward to an operational base in Amazonia.

Proficiency varies substantially within the Caçadore community.  The secondary-role of the Caçadore mission outside the Amazon generally translates into well-drilled infantry units, but not organizations that could realistically be described as special operations units, like the Brazilian Army’s Caçadores Pára-quedista, or comparable foreign commando units.  The exception to this are the Caçadores Aeroterrestre platoons in the Amazon, falling under 3a Força Aérea, where the local situation has allowed for the creation of permanent CSAR support units.  These units, operating in close association with PARA-SAR squadrons are highly trained and have an extensive base of combat experience on both sides of the Brazilian-Incan border among officers, NCOs, and enlisted personnel.  Within the context of the short, sharp, and “maximum violence” raids and small unit actions typical “hot” CSAR operations, 3rd Air Force’s  Caçadores Aeroterrestre platoons can creditably stand alongside any Brazilian or foreign counterpart.

There is a push to remove the Caçadores entirely from the secondary-role status, as noted elsewhere, though this has yet to be acted on by the FAB high command.  The stop-gap measure in the Amazon has proven generally successful, but administrative difficulties remain with maintaining unit integrity (BINFA often want their best trained junior officers and NCOs to assume positions of higher responsibility, unrelated to the CSAR-support mission, for instance) and the situation that full-time Caçadores in the Amazon receive the same specialist pay as part-time ones elsewhere in the force.

Reservists

It is possible for personnel with no prior military experience to enlist directly into the reserve component of the FAB, including the reserve BINFA and EAS.  Unlike the Brazilian Army, which entrusts training of reservists largely to its reserve component, the FAB requires all reservists with no prior military service to complete FAB basic and specialty training, integrated with active duty recruits.  Personnel then complete a month’s active-duty service with their reserve unit  (typically intake of personnel is timed so that this period includes the unit’s yearly block training period) before returning to civilian life.  This typically means that initial entry skills for FAB reservists are superior to the Brazilian Army, but maintenance of those skills and additional training tends to depend very much on the quality of the unit, as is the situation in the army.

Direct entry into reserve EAS squadrons is also possible, though the entrant must usually pass rigorous internal selection programs within the unit before being sent on to FAB basic training and then to the standard PARA-SAR selection and training process, as units are only allowed a certain number of slots to the training program each year and are reluctant to waste them on personnel unlikely to complete the program.

Reserve EAS squadrons typically keep their constituent PARA-SAR teams and flights together for as long as possible, far in excess of what the active component can manage, to maximize unit cohesion.  To deal with the career stagnation in this approach to manning, reserve EAS have a degree of latitude in their rank structure, and so reserve PARA-SAR units are often more NCO rank heavy than their active component counterparts.

Reserve EAS have a much busier training schedule than most FAB reservists.  They also have increasingly been activated for short tours of duty in the Amazon to cover shortages of CSAR teams in that theater as the assigned squadrons attempt to attend to the professional development of their personnel, routine leaves, etc.

INDEX
 

CULTURE

The Infantaria da Aeronáutica has traditionally had a difficult status with the Força Aérea Brasileiro, often being regarded as a dumping ground for officers and enlisted personnel unfit for flight crew positions or technical specialties.  Likewise, the Brazilian Army and Marines have traditionally regarded the Infantaria as a lesser organization.  This has tended to result in the Infantaria possessing an insular culture and a slight inferiority complex in regards to the rest of the Brazilian military.  (The exception to all the above being the PARA-SAR units, who are regarded as a valued elite, though the relationship between PARA-SAR units and the rest of the Infantaria is complex, in and of itself.)

This trend was alleviated to an extent by the events of the 3rd Rio Plata War, in which a number of BINFA caught up in the Argentinean invasion were annihilated, or nearly so, in unequal delaying actions against mechanized and armored forces of the Ejército Argentino.  The highly successful film Sete Dias (Seven Days), a dramatic adaptation of 8o BINFA’s pyrrhic stand on 3-9 March 2279 against elements of the Argentinean 5th Mechanized Division on the campus of Curitiba Catholic University was a critically acclaimed and financially successful 2290 release.  The film’s depiction of ill-prepared though valiant BINFA personnel facing down fascist Argentinean forces in a painfully lopsided contest captured in microcosm the popular Brazilian conception of the war, and bolstered FAB recruiting markedly, especially to the Infantaria da Aeronáutica.  The success of the film, and the more general awareness and lauding of the BINFAs’ conventional combat role in the 3rd Rio Plata War, has been a strange situation for the FAB, “rather like finding out one’s slow-witted cousin was now a hero for saving a drowning child” as one air superiority fighter pilot put it in a perhaps ill-considered interview with a popular Brazilian magazine.

Possibly stemming from the organization’s traditional reputation as a stepchild, the Infantaria da Aeronáutica is often regarded as the most formal of Brazil’s various ground combat organizations.  Military discipline, customs and courtesies, uniformity in uniforms and equipment, etc are observed to a much greater extent than seen elsewhere in the usually relaxed and mission-focused Brazilian military.  This tendency seems to be in decline since the 3rd Rio Plata War, with the Infantaria being brought around to the new all-services Brazilian fatigue uniform for wartime service (requiring, among other things, the abandonment of sleeve rank for enlisted personnel and NCOs and epaulette rank for officers and warrant officers), though it is still notable.  Once again, this attention to “spit and polish” issues does not apply to the PARA-SAR organization, which displays the usual disdain of special operations forces for such things.

There is also an oft commented on degree of friction within the Infantaria da Aeronáutica’s officer corps over various issues, all of which are generally symptomatic of the more basic issue of where an officer’s commission derives from.  Officers emerging from service academies in some ways live up to the stereotypes of Infantaria officers, being those passed over for flying positions or technical fields.  On the other hand, those officers emerging from service academies tend to be the best and brightest enlisted personnel, most typically NCOs qualified as Caçadores and often with combat experience in the Amazon.

Offsetting these various issues is the very real nature of the Infantaria’s mission.  Both the Brazilian and Argentinean special operations forces have traditionally engaged in vigorous strikes against enemy aerospace facilities (and both claim victory in this aspect of the 3rd Rio Plata War, with Brazilian forces staging more successful attacks, while Argentina managed more spectacular successes).  In a Fourth Rio Plata War, Argentinean special operations strikes against FAB air bases are assured, and the Infantaria trains hard to meet this threat.

The day to day demands of the security mission can be rather boring, so the Infantaria tries to maintain a busy schedule of on-site and deployed training exercises.  The organization’s training establishment maintains a dedicated OPFOR unit based at BASA and trained to simulate Argentinean special operations forces; this unit is constantly sending detachments to various bases to run counter-infiltration exercises.  This unit also hosts groups from BINFA deploying to BASA to take part in multi-service exercises there.  In addition, individual personnel and units are often selected for foreign training exercises and courses or exchanges with US, UK, French, and various African nations

INDEX
 

RANKS

Enlisted rank structure within the Infantaria da Aeronáutica is slightly different from that used generally by the FAB, retaining army-type designations for junior enlisted ranks rather than the various Technician (Taifeiro) ranks used elsewhere in the FAB.  Note that one sometimes encounters enlisted ranks carrying an additional appended numerical designator, typically offset by a slash at the end of the rank (i.e. “Cabo /3” or “3o Sargento /2”).  This number, ranging from 0 (usually not written) to 5, does not refer to any relative rank status, but instead indicates salary differentials based on specialist skills.

Officer ranks are standard FAB ranks, and include the FAB-wide addition of a branch-identifying suffix (“-Inf” in this case).
 
 

INFANTARIA DA AERONÁUTICA RANK STRUCTURE
Enlisted/NCOWarrant Officer Ranks Equivalent/Role Commissioned Ranks Equivalent
Soldado 2a Classe (S2) Airman (entry-level) Aspirante (Asp) Officer Trainee
Soldado 1a Classe (S1)  Senior Airman 2o Tenente (2T) Infantry Platoon Leader
Cabo (CB) Fire Team Leader 1o Tenente (1T)  Specialist Platoon Leader
3o Sargento (3S) Senior Fire Team Leader or  Weapons Team Leader Capitão (Cap) Company Commander
2o Sargento (2S)  Squad Leader Major (Maj) Independent Company or Squadron CO
1o Sargento (1S) Platoon NCO Tenente-Coronel (T-Cel) Battalion Commander
Suboficial (SO) Company (and higher) SNCO Coronel (Cel)  Brigade Commander
Brigadiero (Brig) Commandant, Inf da Aero

INDEX

 

KAFER WAR

Brazil was largely uninvolved with the initial phases of the Kafer invasion, except for a battalion-sized expeditionary force of the Army’s Caçadores Aeroespaciais serving with American and British forces in the French Arm.  The successful Kafer penetration as far as Beowulf, and the Herculean multinational effort needed to stop them, gave the Brazilian government pause from its traditional preoccupations with Argentina, however, and the decision was made to organize a substantial expeditionary force of ground, air, and space forces for service in the French Arm.  This force, including Portuguese and Mozambican forces as well as Brazilian units, is known as the Força Expedicionária do Brasil, Portugal e Moçambique (or FOREX-BPM).

For the FAB in general, this primarily meant the deployment of multi-role, ground attack, SEAD, and transport aircraft, given the current (ca. 2303) mopping up going on in the Arm.  With the government being motivated in part by the propaganda dimension of service in the French Arm (notably Argentina and Mexico were not especially welcome or encouraged to join the international effort), the government planned to deploy combat forces to a number of planets with remnant Kafer populations, besides building a large depot on Beowulf to support operations in the Arm.

For the Infantaria da Aeronáutica this meant a substantial commitment, and one that required organizational and doctrinal innovation.  An initial plan for six battalions of BINFA and three EAS to be deployed was emphatically vetoed by the FAB general staff, and significant paring down of forces was called for.  A much more modest plan was developed over the next month, built around a single heavily reinforced battalion in the airbase defense role and a reinforced EAS for CSAR missions.

Currently, the Infantaria da Aeronáutica is represented in the French Arm by 27o BINFA and 7o EAS.  The 27o BINFA is one of the FAB’s two out-of-area battalions without a specific installation defense mission on Earth or Provincia do Brasil.  It has been augmented substantially with both active-duty assets drawn from its sister battalion, 26o BINFA, as well as the FAB’s two reserve BINFA.  The battalion also has a number of cadre from Infantaria training schools assigned as well, and has Amazonia CSAR practices, with three independent Caçadores Aeroterrestre platoons.  The battalion has  taken the arrangement a further step by attaching them directly to the theater EAS squadron.  The 27o BINFA is by far the largest battalion in the Infantaria at this time.

The Esquadrão Aeroterrestre de Salvamento deployed, 7o EAS, is drawn from the 2nd Air Force and, like 27o BINFA, is headquartered at Natal, giving both headquarters a high degree of familiarity and a history of working with one another.  7o EAS been reinforced with two flights from the Provincia-based 900o EAS, providing it the manpower necessary to support CSAR requirements of multiple task forces operating on several worlds and, often, operating in geographically remote portions of those worlds.  As noted above, 7o EAS also includes three Caçadore platoons under its operational control.  British, French, and American advisors on Kafer War CSAR requirements indicated that even this might be considered a “light” ground presence when recovery operations required “hot” extractions.

INDEX
 

UNIFORMS AND EQUIPMENT

The Infantaria da Aeronáutica currently uses standard Brazilian military small arms and support weapons (though the organization has not always done so in the past, most recently not adopting the MD-1 binary assault rifle), and are generally equipped with typical light or mechanized infantry scales of equipment.

Personnel generally wear standard Brazilian military fatigues, in the temperate/jungle/urban pattern suited to most Brazilian terrain.  The exception to this, as with other branches of the Brazilian military, are units stationed in the north-eastern portion of the country in the Caatinga environment, where the service uniform is specific to that environment, with a khaki/grey/pale orange scheme that also serves as the Brazilian military’s desert uniform.  Service uniforms tend to be functional, and identifying marks limited to a patch with name, rank, and branch assignment worn above the left breast pocket of the uniform and unit patch (battalion or independent company/squadron level in the Infantaria) worn over the right breast pocket (or in a corresponding location on body armor).  Unit insignia are also worn on the right and left side of the service helmet, when it is worn.

Personnel assigned to the Infantaria da Aeronáutica all wear the standard service cap or brimmed boonie-hat style cap when not wearing the service helmet, with the exception of the PARA-SAR and Caçadores da Aeroterrestre, who both wear black berets.  PARA-SAR personnel wear this with a red flash and squadron-specific silver cap badge, while Caçadores da Aeroterrestre wear no flash and the bronze crossed rifle and winged sword badge of the Infantaria da Aeronáutica.  (The exception to this being the Amazonia based permanent Caçadores da Aeroterrestre platoons, which have taken to wearing bronze versions of the PARA-SAR squadron capbadge, without flash, that they work with.)

Personnel functioning in a law enforcement capacity, or posted to certain high profile installations, such as Base Aérea de Brasília are expected to present a more polished appearance in the service uniform, and sport rather more embellishment, complete with sleeve (enlisted) or epaulette (officer and warrant officer) ranks, subdued versions of qualifications badges, and the like.  Personnel in these missions also wear the blue and silver dress-uniform fourragere.

INDEX


22 February 2004

Copyright James Boschma, 2004