Contras Air Force: New Factor Is Added to War : 14 Planes Are Ready, 3 Others Being Fitted

Inside a battered steel hangar on an inconspicuous little airfield in San Diego County, three small airplanes are being fitted out to become part of an unpredictable but potentially volatile new factor in Central America’s guerrilla wars--the contras’ air force.

Nicaragua’s rebels, with help from a network of former U.S. military and intelligence officers operating in this country, are quietly assembling and equipping a fleet of small aircraft that will give the guerrillas a potentially important new capability in their war against the Sandinista regime.

The contras, as the guerrillas are known, already have 14 aircraft at a secret air base in Honduras, rebel officials say. They look forward to acquiring the three planes that are being rebuilt in San Diego County--aging, propeller-driven aircraft donated by retired U.S. Air Force officers--and they are seeking still more.

None Combat-Equipped

So far, none of the 12 planes and two helicopters at the Honduras base has been equipped for combat, contras officials say. Instead, the fledgling air force thus far is being used chiefly to transport and resupply guerrilla units all over Nicaragua--”to fight the way the Viet Cong did in Vietnam, only with the added advantage of air supply,” said a CIA veteran who is helping in the effort.

At this point, the contras air force is still badly outmatched by the Sandinista air force of at least 43 aircraft. And, according to all accounts, it has been largely ineffective, with many of its aircraft grounded for lack of maintenance and many of its pilots hesitant to fly missions that would expose them to fire from the Sandinistas’ Soviet-made helicopter gunships.

“It’s been a real hip-pocket operation,” said Edwin B. Dearborn, a former CIA pilot who has been helping to organize the force. “There have been times when we’ve run out of gas.”

Key Factor

But contras leaders, their private backers and some Reagan Administration officials believe that air transport could turn out to be a key factor in the escalating guerrilla war.

“If they can get more aircraft and get themselves organized, it could make a major difference,” said an Administration official who has helped plan the U.S. aid program.

Already, the contras may be the first guerrilla insurgency in history with its own airlift wing. But in the future, the contras say, they will also be looking for combat aircraft as a means of escalating the war against the Marxist-led Sandinistas even further.

“We want to use every weapon that will help us bring democracy to Nicaragua,” said Adolfo Calero, civilian chief of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, the largest contras army. “If we can get more airplanes, so much the better.”

Calero said his aides have prepared for the Reagan Administration a “wish list” of aircraft and equipment in anticipation of the release of $100 million in U.S. aid for the contras. The Democratic-led House of Representatives already has approved the aid package, and the Senate is expected to pass it next month.

Grab Bag of Aircraft

Meanwhile, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force has assembled a grab bag of purchased and donated aircraft in Honduras, with American supporters helping with fund-raising, training and maintenance.

The fleet includes two C-47 transport planes, four Maule short-takeoff-and-landing planes for use on small jungle airstrips and two small helicopters intended for medical evacuations. Calero said his aides are also negotiating for the purchase of a big C-130 transport--a plane that is the mainstay of the U.S. tactical airlift fleet and is often also used for paratroop drops.

“That would be beautiful,” Calero said, beaming.

Even at this stage, the contras air force, like every other facet of their war effort, has become the focus of controversy: It raises the longstanding issue of whether a White House aide helped the contras obtain military equipment during the period when Congress prohibited the Administration from giving the rebels any aid.

Focus on Marine

Several House committees have asked the White House to provide documents about the activities of Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, a National Security Council aide who put the contras in touch with private fund-raisers while government aid was prohibited, according to Administration and Nicaraguan Democratic Force officials.

Several sources said that one of the contacts that North helped the contras to make was with Richard V. Secord, a retired Air Force general with experience in international arms sales. It was Secord, the sources said, who helped the contras obtain their four Georgia-manufactured Maule short-takeoff-and-landing airplanes with donated funds.

Calero confirmed that Secord had played a role in arranging the aircraft purchase. “I don’t know where the money came from,” Calero said.

White House spokesman Daniel Howard said he could not comment on whether North played a role in the aircraft sales except to say that the National Security aide has done nothing illegal.

‘Without Foundation’

“These charges are without foundation,” Howard said.

Secord was traveling abroad late in the week and could not be reached for comment.

The rebel air force’s other U.S. backers include retired Army Lt. Gen. John K. Singlaub and ex-CIA pilot Dearborn.

“We’re looking for people to contribute both money and airplanes,” said Dearborn, a Newport Beach, Calif., resident whose CIA experience included flying secret missions for the agency behind Communist lines during the secret war in Laos in the late 1960s.

Dearborn is overseeing the reconstruction of the three donated airplanes for the contras in San Diego County; he talked about them on condition that their precise location not be revealed. The aircraft include a 1958-vintage Cessna L-19 spotter plane, donated by a retired Air Force officer in Ventura County; a Cessna 337 utility plane, donated by a retired officer in Hawaii; and a Helio Courier short-takeoff-and-landing plane, also from Hawaii.

‘In Pig Heaven’

“If we had four of these, we’d be in pig heaven,” he said, slapping the fuselage of the Helio Courier. “You can carry 2,000 pounds on these and land on a 400-foot runway chopped out of the jungle. If some guy wants to see his name on there (as a donor), all it’ll take is $40,000.”

Dearborn has traveled to Honduras several times to advise the contras’ air force commander, Col. Juan Gomez, a former pilot in the National Guard of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza, who was overthrown by the Sandinistas in 1979.

He said he has found Gomez to be a capable officer but said the contras pilots largely are demoralized and their air base operations are primitive.

“There’s no hangar or enclosure,” he said. “When it rains, everybody stops work. It’s basically roadside maintenance.”

C-47, Helicopter Lost

The contras have already lost a C-47 and a helicopter in operations over Nicaragua, he added, in part because of their pilots’ inexperience.

“Most of the pilots were cadets when Somoza fell,” he said. “They got commercial licenses outside the country. . . . They weren’t ready to go in.”

Dearborn and contras officials refused to say where the air base is. But several sources said the contras have been using an airstrip at Aguacate, about 120 miles northeast of Tegucigalpa, for their air operations. The airstrip was built by U.S. troops during maneuvers in Honduras and used by the CIA for its covert support of the contras until Congress halted that program in 1984.

The Sandinistas know of the air base’s location but have not attacked it, apparently because it is well inside Honduran territory, Dearborn said. “But they will want to attack it one of these days,” he warned.

Small Airstrip Bombed

The Sandinistas already have bombed a small airstrip used by the contras inside Nicaragua, he said.

Dearborn also said the contras’ basic plan for air operations should be to build a network of small airstrips inside Nicaragua and use short-takeoff-and-landing planes and helicopters to move troops and supplies.

“There’s nothing going to boost morale better for guerrilla fighters . . . than planes showing up with new gear and med-evac,” he said. “That’s what we did in Laos. We spent all our time behind enemy lines.”

“At one point, these guys (the contras) were marching whole units for days back out of the country to get a basic load,” Dearborn said. “That’s a lot of wasted time and energy when they could have been fighting the Sandinistas.”

More Mobility Sought

A Reagan Administration official said Dearborn’s comments echo discussions within the Defense Department and the CIA, where officials have long talked of giving the contras more mobility.

“The question is whether the (Nicaraguan Democratic Force) is capable of doing it at all,” he said. “Their air operations have been pretty incompetent so far. . . . But it will clearly be part of the program.”

As to the contras’ dreams of equipping some of their planes with machine guns or missiles to give them combat capability, the official shook his head.

“These guys don’t know what would hit them,” he said. “They’ve never fought a real war. They’ve never faced real anti-aircraft missiles. They’ll get creamed if they try to do too much.”