with helicopters and to give it other missions besides those related with the artillery. The process of the raising of the Army Light Aviation is however terminated in 1955, with the transference of the Piper Super-Cub aircraft to the Air Force, these forming an Army cooperation Liaison and Training Flight based at the Tancos Air Base. During the Portuguese Overseas War (1961-1974), all military air assets were part of the Air Force. These were employed both in independent operations and in cooperation with the land and naval forces, under the coordination of the joint military commands. The Air Force was equipped with assets oriented for the counter-insurgency, including new helicopters that were used to perform joint helicopter operations involving Commandos and Paratroopers (these then being part of the Air Force). Occasionally, the Air Force established detachments of cooperation that operated under the command of Army units. Creation of the Army Light Aviation Unit In the 1980s, based on the experience gained in Africa and the increasingly importance of the helicopter in NATO military operations, a work group was created by the Army's Cavalry Arm Directorate to study and plan the creation of a light aviation unit. On July 12, 1991, the National Defense Superior Council decided to add a light aviation unit to the Medium Term Forces System (). On June 30, 1993, the Ministry of National Defense approved the addition of the Army Light Aviation Group (, GALE) to the list of units to be created, and on August 31 the financing of the program. A commission to prepare for the creation of the unit was then created in 1997. On June 1, 2000, the Army Light Aviation Group was officially formed. On July 1, 2006, the Army Light Aviation Group (GALE) was re-designated as Army Light Aviation Unit (, UALE), as part of the Army's Base Structure and of the Rapid Reaction Brigade. During its existence, the UALE was responsible to serve as the administrative parent unit of the Communications Company of the Rapid Reaction Brigade' and to operate and maintain the Tancos airfield. Due to the lack of aircraft, it however never performed air activities, which were supposedly the reason for its existence. The unit was disbanded in the scope of the new Army organization established in July 2015. Aircraft procurement The unit was originally intended to be equipped with nine light utility helicopters and with ten