The Fuerte Baquedano is a large military base of the

Chilean Army The Chilean Army () is the land arm of the Chilean Armed Forces. This 80,000-person army (9,200 of which are conscripts) is organized into six divisions, an army aviation brigade and a special operations brigade. In recent years, and after sever ...

located in the

Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert () is a desert plateau located on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of South America, in the north of Chile. Stretching over a strip of land west of the Andes Mountains, it covers an area of , which increases to if the barre ...

. It is located 15km to the North of

Pozo Almonte Pozo Almonte () is a city and commune of Chile located in the interior of Atacama Desert. It has been the capital of Tamarugal Province since this province was established in 2007. The city is located at from Tacapacá Region's capital, Iquique ...

and 16km to the South of

Huara Huara is a Chilean town and Communes of Chile, commune in Tamarugal Province, Tarapacá Region. It is located or ( by road) northeast of Iquique. The village is crossed by the Pan-American Highway and is the crossing point for the road that goes ...

. It is considered the largest defense facility in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

and the most powerful due to the large number of armored vehicles it has. The place is known for being a patch of vegetation in the middle of the desert landscape, since the facilities are surrounded by trees and bushes. It is the headquarters of the Second Armored Brigade "''Cazadores''". It was created on December 16, 2007 on the basis of the Armored Regiment 2 "''Cazadores''". Also located in this Military Fort is the Commando Company 6 "''

Iquique Iquique () is a port List of cities in Chile, city and Communes of Chile, commune in northern Chile, capital of both the Iquique Province and Tarapacá Region. It lies on the Pacific coast, west of the Pampa del Tamarugal, which is part of the At ...

''", the FAMAE Industrial Maintenance Center "''

''" and the Telecommunications Battalion 6 " ''Tarapaca''". The 2nd Armored Brigade is made up of: * ''Mechanized Infantry Battalion No. 5 "Carampangue",'' * ''Armored Group No. 7 "Guides",'' * ''Mechanized Engineering Company No. 7 "Aconcagua",'' * ''Artillery Group No. 9 "Salvo",'' * ''Independent Logistics Company.'' * ''Telecommunications Company No. 11 "Huara"'' * ''Administrative and Logistics Headquarters'' Fort Baquedano has several vehicles in the base such as the

Leopard 2A4 The Leopard 2 is a third generation German main battle tank (MBT). Developed by Krauss-Maffei in the 1970s, the tank entered service in 1979 and replaced the earlier Leopard 1 as the main battle tank of the West German army. Various iterat ...

, Leopard 1V,

Marder (IFV) The Schützenpanzer Marder 1 (; ''" Schützen" carrying "Armour"-ed fighting vehicle " Marten 1"'') is a tracked German infantry fighting vehicle designed for use with the West German Panzergrenadiere units, mechanized infantry specialized for ...

, M-109 and various versions of

M113 The M113 is a fully tracked armored personnel carrier (APC) that was developed and produced by the FMC Corporation. The M113 was sent to United States Army Europe in 1961 to replace the mechanized infantry's M59 APCs. The M113 was first used ...

and other mechanized and motorized tanks. The place has two residential villas, the El Bosque Military Villa for Officers and the Baquedano Military Villa for NCOs.

References

Chilean Army Populated places in Tarapacá Region {{tarapacá-geo-stub