The Brazilian government is looking for the offsets not the fighter itself.
You are completely right to point out too many differences between the final contenders, but, the interesting point is that both companies offered the best off-set proposal and their products are totally different.
No matter who will be the winner, the government wants to have Embraer involved on the project. The points that Charlie echo mentioned was correct. Some other options were considered, but, right now only speculation, such as:
– An upgrade of the engines of the current Mirage III fleet;
– A lease of the South African Cheetahs;
– Lease of Israeli Kfir C10
– Lease of Dutch F16s MLU

I think the wise decision should be the lease of one of the mentioned jets, my preference goes to the Dutch F16s MLU, and wait a few more years until our economy can grows because, right now, we are facing several problems in this area.

Regards

OOOpppsss Warthog

I think the best aircraft to replace the F-111 is the Strike Eagle, but the Super Hornet is a good option. The RAAF could concentrate its fighter fleet in only one type or maybe buy the Super Hornet and upgrade its actual fleet of Hornets.

Regards,

The iraq still have Tucanos, they brought almost 50 airplanes, but, i guess that left only ten or twelve. They can brought Super Tucano, a good option