DIFAA
Departamento de Investigación de Fenómenos Aéreos Anómalos
Fuerza Aérea del Perú (FAP)
DIFAA was created in 2001 within the Peruvian Air Force, dissolved in 2008, and reactivated in 2013. Its purpose is to investigate UAP reports involving Peruvian airspace and aircraft, working alongside the Air Force Intelligence Directorate.
About the program
Peru's modern UAP work is housed inside the Fuerza Aérea del Perú (FAP). DIFAA was originally stood up in 2001 by Commander (FAP) Julio Chamorro Flores, deactivated under a budget review in 2008, and reactivated in October 2013 by FAP General Carlos Rodríguez de la Cruz in response to a documented increase in pilot reports.
Unlike GEIPAN or CEFAA, DIFAA does not publish a public case database. Its findings are typically released only through press conferences, FAP statements, and academic papers authored by its current and former officers. This makes the Peruvian record harder to audit but the institutional commitment is unambiguous: DIFAA is a permanent line item in the FAP organizational structure.
Peru's most cited case in the international literature is the 11 April 1980 La Joya Air Base incident, in which Lt Oscar Santa María Huertas (FAP) was scrambled in an Su-22 to intercept a balloon-shaped object over Arequipa. The pilot's signed account remains a touchstone reference in the modern record.
Landmark documents
Direct primary-source links. Where a backup mirror exists for a known link-rot risk, we name the host.
- Case file · 11 April 1980
La Joya Air Base intercept — Lt Oscar Santa María Huertas account
Daylight intercept of an unidentified object over La Joya Air Base, Arequipa, by an FAP Su-22 piloted by Lt Oscar Santa María Huertas. Documented in U.S. Defense Attaché cable 'IR 6 876 0146 80' (3 June 1980), which entered the public domain via FOIA. Often cited as one of the better-documented military UAP intercept reports of the Cold War period.
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