The Uruguayan Air Force (, abbreviated FAU) is the air service branch of the Armed Forces of Uruguay. Originally created as part of the National Army of Uruguay, the Air Force was established as a separate branch on December 4, 1953. It is the youngest and also the smallest branch of the Armed Forces of Uruguay. In 1977 it was determined that the mission of the Air Force is to conduct strategic and tactical aerospace operations on behalf of the national defense, exercising the sovereignty of the Uruguayan airspace and defending the independence, integrity, constitution and laws of the country. The Air Force must also conduct search and rescue missions and plan, propose, execute and supervise the necessary measures for the development of the aerospace potential, while providing any necessary and possible logistical support during the natural disasters that the country may suffer. Since 1985 this has been always carried out under the command of the President of Uruguay, and according to the Minister of National Defense. History Antecedents Military aviation in Uruguay was born on 17 March 1913 when the Military Aviation School (Escuela Militar de Aviación) was formed. Like other Latin American countries, flight instruction was initially performed by a European instructor pilot. In Uruguay, this was made by the French instructor Marcel Paillette, who trained ten National Army officers who had been chosen to be the first Uruguayan military pilots. Among them were Captain Juan Manuel Boiso Lanza and Lieutenant Cesáreo L. Berisso. Berisso was one of the first graduates from that school, and on 22 June 1913, he carried out the first solo flight by a Uruguayan, flying from Los Cerrillos to Malvín in 1 hour 45 minutes. He then became the first director of the military aviation flight school and continued his military career until reaching the rank of General. He died on July 28, 1971, and became the namesake of Gen. Cesáreo L. Berisso Air Base in Carrasco, the headquarters of Air Brigade I. Boiso Lanza, however, was the first fatality of the Uruguayan military aviation. He died in a plane crash on 10 August 1918, when he was training in France, and later became the namesake of Cap. Juan Manuel Boiso Lanza Air Base, where the General Command of the Uruguayan Air Force is located in Montevideo. In his honor, August 10 was also made the military aviation martyrs day. Along with two