Great job! Will we get to see the TSR in camouflage?;)

Regards,

😎

Hammer

Lovely aircraft the A7 Plus! Too bad it didn’t go into production 🙁 It does look like a “softened” F-8 Crusader, desn’t it?…. But I doubt Vought would put it into production for a number as small as 20 aircraft, wich is the most anyone can expect from the Brazilian Navy for this function. The current “US Export Fighter” is the F-16 and nothing else.

The Navy has stated repeatedly that it wants nothing to do with VTOL jets so this line of thought is pretty much pointless….

In 1941 the Brazilian Airforce was built out of the amalgamation of Army Aviation and Naval Aviation. This was a very traumatic process that put our military services in sharply divergent paths on the best use of airpower. Only very recently was the navy allowed to operate its own fixed wing fighters from the our Aircraft Carrier. The law tha allowed for this explicitly forbade the operation of land based Navy aircraft, so: no land-based Flankers or Mig-29Ks… Sorry 🙂

Building the ski=jump is certainly MUCH less expensive and risky then creating a Naval fighter out of the AMX. No doubt about it! The São Paulo could get the ski-jump in the bow and keep the catapults operational in the angled deck, thus operating both kinds of aircraft…

One minor correction: the FX was cancelled in order to free the government from Embraer political lobbying and pressuring. Ther never was a cost issue connected to the cancelation, the “famine relief” argument for delaying the program was justa a ruse to give the incoming government a way out of its “campaign trail commitments”

The Su-33 can easily operate empty from the current elevators and arrestor gear, the problem is if taking off and landing close to the MTOW configuration.

Comments?

Regards

Hammer

Regardless though,the A-4s aren’t bad,after all Australia used the A-4Gs as fighters to defend the Aussie Carrier Melbourne.

But Iranian, just when was this? In this day and age would the Australian Navy sail it’s CV into waters where Su30MKK, MKI our MKM prowl? In one word, NEVER! The current military value of an (even seriously-upgraded) A-4 is very limited… Skyhawk fleet numbers are evaporating as we discuss this… The number of airforces and navies interested in upgrades of this family is minimal. I believe Brazil should relegate the A-4 to a carrier pilot qualificantioon role as it is and set it´eyes on some future multipurpose fighter platform that already can use modern weaponry in the A2A and A2G arenas. The whole developing work is very expensive and time consuming, and, not forgeting, very risky.

Unfortunately the AMX as a product is in its dying phase. The Italian decision to mothball some 65 aircraft (around 30% of the WHOLE world fleet) is the kiss of death unless Brazil becomes really bold and purchases these aircraft to set up two more attack (anti-ship) squadrons. No one would seriously consider deveoloping a naval version with only 20 aircraft as the whole world-wide market. Don’t forget a AMX naval variant would essentialy do the same job as an A-4 with no apparent performance or cost benefit. In this case let’s stick to the tried and proved alternative: the A-4.

Comments?

Regards,

Hammer

Hola Rafa

is there any published photo of the MS model of the EMB 145 purchased by the Mexican Air Force?

Saludos

Hammer

Good point. FAB always wanted Gripens, but Embraer political pressure and lobbying prevented it. Embraer had evaluated Mirage 2000 before the forced marriage with Dassault and pointed out that Mirage was oldest and the “one with the least prespective of having a future”. Gripen was the choice at that moment.

Let me just adjust your comment a little bit… FAB always thought the Gripen was the the “best fighter” it could aspire to be able to buy/operate… Since the 50’s we’ve been denied by the US the aircraft we really would like to have operated. We wanted the F-86 Sabre and were denied them (we bought Gloster Meteors instead) in the mid 60’s we asked for F-4s and were once again turned down. This is when after comparing the BAC Lightning the Mirage III and the SAAB Drakken we opted for the french model.

When the FX program started FAB specs were very broad and open ended in order NOT to pre-disqualify any possible bidder. Athough a two engined plane would be much better suited to out vast forestland in the north single engine planes were acceptad in order to have the largest number of bidders possible in order to put some pressure on the asked prices. Suddenly out of the blue the russinas spring a dirt cheap proposal for their latest Flanker… The guys at the AirForce just couldn´t believe that they might end up with a world beater fighter plane in Brazilian operation. The last time this had happened was when the USAAF handed us brand new P-47s in the Italian Theater in late 1944 or early 1945…

Since the Sukhoi offer the number of fighterjocks that dream of the Flanker grows every day… The people who favored the Gripen were mostly the engineers from São Jose dos Campos, dazed by the Swedish planes high tech systems. Support for the Grippen was mostly centered around congresspeople that desperately need their campaign contributions andd care very little about the air deffense of the nation.

On the other question: “Why would Brazil need modern front line fighters”? Simple answer: “in order to know how to use them in combat if it ever is needed. “Se vis pacem parabellum” or in plain English, “If you want peace, prepare for war”… Paraguay, Uruguay or Surinam of course pose no threat to us. Even Argentiina or Venezuela are much more in line as clients and economic partners then any sort of military risk.

But we want to be able to take part in future UN peacekeeping operations around the world. Currently we are limited to sending foot soldiers and cargo planes and the Brazilian Governmente has repetedly stated that we want to expand our commitment to the UN missions.

I read in a British magazine that the M2000 was the backup concept to the M4000 and that the F1 was also the backup for the larger Mirage F2…

Much to the chagrin of Dassault the backups keep on getting the orders…

Anyone has any more images/artwork of the Mirage F2? Apparently there was a Mirage 1000 concept for a Gripen sized aircraft with a smaller engine and some other concept known as the Mirage 3000, any news on this one?

Regards

Hammer

The reason I proposed the purchase of used italian AMXs is simple, we are the only two countries currently operating this aircraft sou if the Italians mothball their fleet allç the support infrastructure stats to become more and more costly per aircraft. If the italians decide to abandon the plane then we are screwed! Costs shoud fly off the roof and we’ll have no option but to quit the model altogether. If we wait too long the AMX upgrade program may have winded down and the Italian aircraft may in a state beyond economic repair…

Currently we are in the middle of a reasonable updete of the F-5 fleet of courese the AMX could never be considered a true air defence fighter but the italian aircraft are capable of shooting AIM-9 sidewinders wich is similar to what the current F-5s can accomplish. Instead of purchasing Used F-16s we should get more F-5 and grow the number of airgraft involved in the F-5BR program, seting some aircraft to protect the nations capital. If we go to the F-16s there will be a great pressure NOT TO BUY ANY NEW FIGHTER AT ALL. And Brazil’s entry into the elite of fighter operators will be delayed some 20 more years into the future. 😡

Sens, Lula never said he wasn’t buying the FX fighter wwhat he said was that Embraer shoul be the chosen bidder and tha if the fighters were similar then there was no reason to buy from a foreign company… This of course is a sad a case total disinformation or politicaly driven blindness. This delay is a major defeat for Embraer because it’s offer is the oldest and the one with the least prespective of having a future … Any FX delay, whatever the cause or reason is VERY bad news for the Mirage 2000. Once Lula took office he was confronted by the facts: a) Mirage 2K had no future b) Ther Mirage was the most expensive option c) Embraer offered NO OFFSET OFFER WHATSOEVER d) there was no economic justification to set up a local Mirage production e) Export perspectives for the “Brazilian” Mirage line was somewhere between “slim” to “improbable”.´

To make things even worse, the whole protracted process of selling 20% of Embraer’s stock to the French had definetly soured any affection the Brazilian Air Force still had for Embraer, from this moment on she was the proverbial “ungrateful daughter that abandons the family to marry a stranger”

After contributing heavily to Lula’s campaign and to that of other Workers Party candidates after the inauguration Embraer came down on Lula for it’s payback and amazingly they even spelled it out to the Brazilian press…

So the problem never has been money or the alledged prioritizing of social expenditure, the whole time the current government has been trying hard to escape the Embraer political pressure and lobbying. Just this.

If the FAB had any intention of acccepting the Mirage 2000 as the new FX fighter it would have been bought YEARS AGO!

Regards

Hammer

Malandro,

I’m sorry to burst your bubble but Roberto Godoy is one of the least reliable sources in Brazilian aerospace media… Many many times he’s writen articles only slightly touch reality…

😡

On this very article he suggests that the Brazilian Ai Force is considering developing A NEW MULTIROLE FIGHTER! That´s the utmost insanity! If there’s no money to buy more than 12 new fighters where would the money come for the fullscale development of a brand new model? Pure rubish, I’m sorry!

I´m against buying de refurbished F-16 we should instead buy the mothballed AMXs from Italy. :diablo:

Comments?

Regards,

Hammer