Has anyone else noticed that the plane in the picture has no in-flight refueling probe on the nose/cockpit ceiling? Doesn’t this strike you as weird?

Best Regards,

Hammer

http://www.brecorder.com/news/general-news/pakistan/1124646:rollout-ceremony-of-first-chinese-zdk-03-awacs-aircraft-for-paf-held.html

Rollout ceremony of first Chinese ZDK-03 AWACS aircraft for PAF held…..

Hi guys, the crucial point in most Brazilians minds is that there is SIMPLY NO PERCEIVABLE MENACE OR THREAT lurking along the vast Brazilian borders. Pretty much our neighbours’ tiny economies might go broke just by mobilizing their troops and military means for a hypotethical war in our subcontinent, let alone really starting any real “shooting war” of their own…

We are today like the US might been if they had to set up their armed forces exclusively to face off with the Canadians, Mexicans and God forbid the Bermudans! 😉

LOL!

The whole press is waiting for Lula and Dilma to return from Korea to see how this announcemente plays out, the clock is ticking… And as it does, Saab and Dassault are moving anxiously about playing their last cards… Who’s to blame them.

Regards,

Hammer

Link does not work for me — what does it say?

http://www.fab.mil.br/portal/operacoes_aereas/cruzex5/index

the h from http was missing! It is about the next Cruzex air exercises to take place in the Brazilian northeast.

Enjoy

Hammer

Does Brazil need A330/Boeing 767 or whatever tankers? Won’t the KC-390 be enough?

The KC390 is focused in moving big heavy items within Brazil, they`re the key to the “enhanced mobility” specified within the Brazilian National Defense Strategy document. Through the 50+ KC-390s the Brazilian Army is to become a VERY mobile force being able to switch units instantly from a base in the South of the country to an Operations Theater in the extreme North, East or West of the country and vice-versa. On the other hande the new “long Range” lifter/tanker is set to stretch the government and logistics-wise the military reach towards Europe and the USA. These planes are set to replace the four obsolete KC-137s we still have in the Brazilian Air Force

Since these would naturally be simplr off the shelf purchases their delivery would surely happen before the KC390`s prototypes manage to fly for the first time. I also imagine that at least one of the new long range aircraft will be delivered as a presidential/VVIP aircraft to replace the current short-legged A319CJ…

Get my point? 😉

Regards,

Hammer

Well Loke, that is one way of seeing it… 😉

I’ve come to note that we have seen in the last months a major and remarkable switch in Mr Jobim’s public position with this last coments to the press…

Initially, (up until Aug this year) he was repeatedly very vocal in defending all over the place that the F-X (and in his oppinion the Rafale was the sole choice) had to be decided BEFORE this government expired in Dec31st.

Then between Aug and now we see Jobim dispear completely from the press..

Now he suddenly resurfaces in the press saying that Lula should leave it to his successor to select the F-X winner, as “a matter of courtesy”.

This change of heart could be due to two possible facts.

a) He believes that Lula might have switced his alliances and is now supporting the Swedes over the French, and that,

b) He thinks that Serra has a now a fighting chance of winning the president seat over Dilma, in which case a lot of people believe Jobim would stay in his office as the Minister of Defense (as they are reputedly great friends) and then he might have a chance to further his point of buying the Rafale. (Just this week Jobim’s PMDB party in his home state of Rio Grande do Sul has abandoned supporting Dilma’s campaign for Serra’s despite Dilma’s vice president coming from the very same PMDB party (only from São Paulo State).

Both issues above are just my speculations, and we’ll need to wait a while more for the 2nd round of voting to tell us who has won the presidential race.

Most political analysts agree that now Lula has effectively stopped being the President and has dived head first as a 24hour Dilma supporter attending political rallies all over the country… So in this case he has no time to spare deciding over the very controversial F-X2 choice.

Now we wait untill Oct 31st.

Best Regards,
Hammer

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9IRLOH00.htm

So now Jobim makes it clear what most people already had figured out; Lula will not make the decision, the next president will.

I don´t understand anything about this FX-2 selection process. :confused:

Have no fear, my friend, I’ll guide you through this apparent dark jungle… 😉

The Rafale was selected in September 2009 but, somehow yet not?

APPARENTLY Lula was not then involved in the day to day business of acquiring the next Gen fighter for the FAB when he said what he said in an off the cuff remark to the press members present in Sep 2009. His comments cought every one by surprise and in a knee jerk reaction Sarkozy took the decision to “wing it” too, probably thinking that Lula would later on be too embarassed to change his mind about the publicly anounced “Rafale selection”. Nelson Jobim the Defense Minister let the Brazilian Air Force have a free hand in running the initial selection process probably thinking that FAB would be pliable later on in order to let the Ministry (the politicians, not the military) choose the bidder that best fit its geopolitical, industrial, etc plans/needs. When Jobin tried to wrest control of the program from the Brazilian Air Force generals they reacted and discretely refused to comply with his plans a situation that created all the problems and report leaks we saw in the first half of this year. Every time the Ministry sat down to write a reasoning to defend the Rafale choice, something new hit the fan (generally through the press) imploding that particular line of reasoning and sending Jobim all the way back to the proverbial drawing board…

While all this happened, at the same time, Boeing disapeared “into the woodwork”, and Saab grew bolder and bolder bringing into its side Embraer, the Brazilian second tier aerospace companies, the powerful Industrial Association of the State of São Paulo (FIESP) and the labor unions of the high tech sector in the Greater São Paulo. Most political analists argue that the labour unions, the very same “cradle” from which Lula sprang from are politically so close to him that they WOULD NEVER side with the Swedes if Lula REALLY wanted to buy the French Rafale… Now the Mayor of the city of São Bernardo do Campo, Lula’s home town is now seen publicly defending the Saab deal everywhere, he’s gone to Sweden and he flew the Gripen himself, most certainly a World-first for non-Swede city mayors… While Saab is talkative the Dassault representative is nowhere to be seen or heard, certainly not a good sign…

All information needed is available but still a year has passed without a contract being signed… What is Lula waiting for really? What information is missing? What terms and conditions available today could change in the future?

I assure you that all the cards are already in the table, by now. There were two “best and final” pricing bids before Sept 09 and a third one was sought after that. What we have heard informally is that although Rafale proposed prices came down they did not do so significantly, and Gripen remained much cheaper to operate and to purchase vis-a-vis the French fighter. At this point in time we clearly see Nelson Jobim stoping his pressure tactics focused on Lula to buy the Rafale since the political/election process began in earnest last July. Now we seem Jobim say that the deal is in Lula’s hands, although his recomendation still has not been officialy delivered to the President or his National Defense Council.

Also, why is it Lula has decided to postpone the decision until after the election? This postponement implies to me that the decision would somehow have implications on the election….implications that Lula wants to avoid? Is the FX-2 bid a topic of debate in the currect election anyway

Differently from war-hardened countries like India, Pakistan, China and Israel spending vital cash on defense projects is not seen by the majority of the Brazilian people as a vital area. So the Government opting for the clearly most expensive fighter with no good solid reason behind its move is in reality a way of giving the oposition political fuel to be used against itself in a very heated and contested election in which several cases of questionable Lula government decisions may easily point to some “juicy” new corruption scheme… This is certainly not a good theme for the ongoing presidential campaign…

Maybe, a Brazilian member of the forum would like to explain, please? Also if you believe that by now Lula has changed sides and now supports the Saab airplane he has absolutely no rush to have Jobim try to push teh Rafale once again.

Understand it now? 😉

Regards,

Hammer