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Brazilian Air Force (FAB) started with Meteor(F8 and TF-7) in 1953

Brazil Close To Awarding $778M Military Contract-Sources

By Anthony Dovkants and Adriana Brasileiro
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
1,276 words
26 March 2004
16:54
Dow Jones International News
English
(c) 2004 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

SAO PAULO (Dow Jones)–Brazil’s government is in the final stages of awarding a $778 million contract to buy 12 new fighter jets, several people close to the bidding process told Dow Jones Newswires Thursday.

An advisory committee, which is made up of members from a number of ministries, recommended a winner Wednesday, the same sources added. Their report is now expected to be approved by a committee made up of cabinet ministers, congressional leaders and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the coming weeks.

The victor will take an important slice of a $3.4 billion overhaul of Brazil’s air defense system, and a critical position in a region dominated by the U.S. The Ministry of Defense declined to name the winner.

“It’s been decided, but the name of the winner is being kept very secret at the moment,” said a well-placed source among the bidders, adding the process going forward would largely be of a bureaucratic nature.

Brazilian giant Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA (ERJ), or Embraer, and French partner Dassault Aviation SA (12172.FR) have long been tipped to win. Lockheed Martin (LMT) is considered to be out of the running, while Rosoboronexport’s Russian Sukhoi jet and Gripen International – a unit of BAE Systems PLC (BA.LN) and Saab AB (SAAB-B.SK) – are making a last-minute push.

So much so that they’re unsettling the favorite Embraer, whose president Mauricio Botelho engaged in a war of words last week during a fourth-quarter earnings call, defending Dassault’s Mirage 2000-5 Mk2 jets.

“They say the Gripen plane is faster than ours,” said Botelho. “But the truth is we can fly just as fast with more cargo. We can also fly further. Their plane is…worse,” he added. Gripen International declined to comment, saying it avoided public shouting matches.

Talking about the Sukhoi SU-35 jet, Botelho said the Russians “have always been great aerospace engineers. But what they have now is an industrial program…Their plane is a disaster. The Russians have delayed deliveries by three years, and when the Sukhoi was finally delivered, their parts were rusted and corroded.”

Responding to Botelho’s comments, Felipe Salles, marketing manager for consultancy CSE – Camargo Sistemas and Engenharia, which represents Rosoboronexport, said there were issues in 2000, referring to problems with the Indian Air Force. “But there have been no problems in 2001, 2002, 2003, or in 2004, and India has made an order for another 140 jets. The problem is that the Sukhoi is superior to the Mirage and costs half as much, it also travels further, carries a much heavier weapons payload than the other planes, and has two engines as a safety feature.”

The executive said Russian government agency Rosoboronexport had never been more confident about winning. Rosoboronexport – which has teamed up with Avibras Aeroespacial, Latin America’s biggest arms provider – has offered to set up a new assembly line and maintenance center in Brazil, creating 1,000 new high-paying jobs here.

To do this, Rosoboronexport wants to bring Embraer into the picture to assemble the fighters. As part of its offset, Russia would be prepared to buy the Brazilian company’s commercial jets. Salles said the acquisition of 100 regional planes was possible in a deal that would be worth several billion dollars.

The Russians are also prepared to open up new business ventures such as projects involving new liquid fuel satellite launching technologies. Such know-how would be key to helping Brazil get its own space program off the ground.

Rosoboronexport would set up a local air-to-air missle production plant for Brazil and its neighbors, and the Russian agency said its government would be ready to increase trade ties with Brazil, and open the door to buying more than $3 billion worth of goods over seven years.

“No other competitor has even attempted to come close to such a comprehensive agreement as ours,” said Salles.

That may be true, but if you ask Gripen International, it believes it has the best deal on the table.

Owe Wagermark, communications director for Gripen International and former deputy chief of the Swedish Air Force, said Gripen was the only bidder trying to sell a fourth-generation fighter.

“The JAS-39 is the most modern plane on offer, it’s replacing third-generation jets like the F-16 and the Mig-29. It’s a multi-role jet, it can do air defense, air to ground, air to sea, training, true reconnaissance and all at a flip of a switch,” said Wagermark.

Still, the JAS-39 has been criticized within the Brazilian Air Force, or FAB, for not being able to travel as far as jets such as the SU-35. Distance matters as Brazil is larger than the continental U.S.

“The JAS-39 refuels in the same way as the current FAB jets, there is no problem refueling in the air or on the ground, and because of its smaller size, it’s designed to operate on very short runways, unlike some of the larger planes,” said Wagermark.

Regarding details of Gripen’s offset, Wagermark said there was a commercial element to the company’s offer but added FAB had asked bidders not to comment on specifics. Wagermark said Gripen was able to talk about its compensation package in more general terms.

“The most important thing is that we are willing to share our technology and work with any of Brazil’s companies,” he said.

Gripen International, which can assemble its planes in Brazil if need be, has offered to open a technology center with Brazil’s second-largest airline Varig SA (VAGV4.BR) to develop areas such as logistics support and the transfer of military technology. Varig has a unit that specializes in aeronautical engineering and maintenance for commercial and military aircraft.

Like Salles, Wagermark, who has flown the JAS-39 jet and says there’s a big difference between a third and fourth generation plane, says Gripen has the best offer. “The plane is new, and because of this Brazil would be able to renew its air force for many years to come,” he said.

Embraer and Dassault, meantime, are more reticent about what they have proposed in their offset.

In a statement in Thursday’s papers, Embraer said Dassault would transfer its technologies to its Brazilian partner, and the plane would be assembled here. Embraer, which is the world’s fourth-largest commercial jetmaker, declined to comment on whether there would be improved commercial ties with France.

Still, Embraer says it has the best offer.

It remains unclear, however, which company the advisory committee has picked.

According to people close to FAB, opinion has been divided. The Sukhoi and Gripen jets scored highly among pilots, while senior officers believe the Mirage should come out on top – though that may not be the case.

In the last few months, the government has repeatedly said a Brazilian company would be involved in the deal no matter what. Foreign bidders believe this means Embraer will win a slice of the contract, but they also increasingly think Dassault and its Mirage jet will be left out. Botelho thinks otherwise.

“The expectation is that we’ll win,” he said. “There are three strong proposals, but I can’t see why we wouldn’t be the winner.”

-By Anthony Dovkants and Adriana Brasileiro; Dow Jones Newswires; 55-11-3145-1478; [email]brazil@dowjones.com[/email]

(Rogerio Jelmayer contributed to this article) [ 26-03-04 1954GMT ]

Document DJI0000020040326e03q000vo
© 2004 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.

I knew Jordão when he was 1st Fighter Group commander, but he never said nothing about this…

The original text is in Portuguese and I used the Altavista´s translator.

http://www.ufogenesis.com.br/casos_famosos/noiteoficial.htm

The 15 years of the “official night of the UFOs” in Brazil

In May of 2001, we complete 15 years of the famous “Official Night of the UFOs” in Brazil, where our airspace was invaded by 21 UFOs, marking the date in the Brazilian Ufologia for the fact of our Aeronautics to have admitted the invasion of Brazilian skies. She was one of the few times where our government came the public to officially recognize the extraterrestrial presence in Brazil. Here, a chronology of the episode, compiled for the Group of Ufológicos Studies of Baixada Santista (GEUBS):
* 21h10 – Some blinkings are observed by Alcyr commander.
* 21h14 – the control of radar of São Paulo registers some signals without identification.
* 21h20 – Brasilia confirms the presence of signals without identification in its radars.
* 22h23 – first F-5 Takes off of the Air base of Santa Cruz to try to intercept the UFOs.
* 22h45 – the radar of the Air base of Anápolis, in Goiás, detects more signals without identification. A Mirage takes off of the base in search of objects.
* 23h15 – the pilot of the first F-5 to enter in action sees objects for the first time and starts to pursue them.
* 23h17 – Plus a Mirage he takes off of the Air base of Anápolis, increasing the unusual persecution.
* 23h20 – the F-5 detects for the first time objects in its edge radar.
* 23h36 – One third Mirage takes off of the Base of Anápolis.

In that night of 19/05/1986 the radars of the Cindacta had registered a total of 21 unknown signals invading the Brazilian airspace and the pilots who had raised flight to intercept the UFOs had not obtained to come close themselves to the targets. At that time, Brigadier General Moreira Lima and the pilots had given depositions to the Press on the supposed invasion for flying records. Here it is what they had said:

Captain Jordão(F-5E pilot) – “When I was directing myself for the area of search of São José dos Campos I was receiving information for the radar of that the 8 luminous points to my front had of 6, about 18 miles”.

Kleber lieutenant – “I was above of 1000 Km/h and not obtaining to identify, much less to approach me to those luminous points”.

Brigadier General Moreira Lima – “What he occurred he was that the radars had more than detected two sets of ten of UFOs in the area of São Paulo, São José dos Campos and Rio De Janeiro, the point to saturate the radars of São Paulo and, in consequence of this and also for the fact to be intervening with the control of the airspace, was determined the take-off of the aircraft of aerial defense to intercept these objects. One of the pilots arrived to fit one of them, but coloring only saw something, not identifying the one that if treated “.

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