Argentinian Super Etendard pilots get their qualifications on São Paulo. There are some studies for a mix deployment between Brazilian Skyhawks and Argentinian SUEs together with Argentinian trackers and both Navies Sea Kings and Brazilian Super Pumas

Regards

Very sad news. And so close to Christmas. Hope God can comfort the families and relatives from both officers.
Sad news.

Very sad. Hope God can bring comfort to their families.

Hi Camaro,

Not so good news about Cruzex 2004, Peru and South Africa will not bring aircrafts for the exercise, that´s bad, I was anxious to see either Mig-29 or Mirage 2000s from FAP.
Venezuela will come with F-16s and Mirages 50, Argentina with A-4s and the Frenchs with the Mirage 2000.
The exercise will begin next week. take a look at http://www.fab.mil.br/cruzex

Saludos

Wolf/Condor,

Do you guys have any good picture on the Salitre exercise?

Saludos

Brazilian Government officialy denied such deal, but, during the visit of our VP, the same have visited Sukhoi plant and had meetings with Mr. Putin. The basic issue was the liberation of the meat that we export to Russia that are suffering embargo. Some say (speculation) that the intention is to clear the embargo if Brazil get the Sukhoi.
Also, Mr. Putin are coming here in November and I heard (speculation also) that three SU-35s are coming for a demonstration tour (Su-35 is by far the preference of FAB pilots). Recently was published that the President is considering to meet the National Defense Counsil in order to decide the winner, let´s see.
Also, next November will take place a huge Air exercise (for South American standards) invloving Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Venezuela, South Africa and France. And France are coming with plenty of Mirages 2000, both C and D or N, I don´t know. More demonstrations are coming. 🙂
Probably it will be between both jets.

I´m attaching an article got from http://www.defesanet.com.br

Regards,

Plan of Attack on Lula

Russian Fighters Sight on the President of Brazil

People’s Friendship

by Ivan Safronov, Sergey Ryzhkin

A rolling-out ceremony for the new regional An-148 jet airplane took place at the Aviant state aircraft plant in Kiev on Friday. OAO Ilyushin Finance Co. (IFK), which is coordinating the project, is not hiding the fact that the fate of the An-148 depends on the outcome of an Aeroflot tender for delivery of 50 regional airliners. However, Kommersant has learned that Rosoboronexport and the RF Ministry of Defense are lobbying vigorously for a plan to deliver 12 Su-35 fighter planes to Brazil in exchange for 50 Brazilian Embraer planes for Aeroflot. The amounts of the deals are comparable – about $750 million. Both parties are so interested in selling their planes to one another that the probability of such a deal is very high. Its outcome may be decided in November during talks between the presidents of Russia and Brazil, Vladimir Putin and Luis Lula da Silva.

Aeroflot – Russian Airlines began the process of choosing a supplier of 50 regional-class jet airplanes in July. As Kommersant reported on October 15, OAO Ilyushin Finance Co. (An-148), ZAO Proekt-3000 (Tu-334A), ZAO Sukhoi Civil Aircraft (RRJ), the Brazilian company Embraer (E-170/175 and E190/195), and the Canadian company Bombardier (CRJ-700 and 900) have officially sent offers to Aeroflot. It appears from Aeroflot’s proposal that the company should receive the first ten planes in 2005. However, Russian and Ukrainian suppliers will not have time to set up production and build that number of airplanes.

To all appearances, the government is not relying on Russian manufacturers. According to Kommersant’s sources in the RF government and the Federal Military and Technical Cooperation Service, Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov and Rosoboronexport’s general manager, Sergey Chemezov, are actively lobbying for a plan to deliver 12 Su-35 fighters to Brazil in exchange for Moscow’s commitment to purchase 50 Embraer 170/175 and 190/195 planes within the framework of the Aeroflot tender. Officials of the Russian military-industrial complex are prepared to deliver the planes and work out a servicing and training system for flight and technical personnel. The total amount of the deal, including carrying out the necessary R & D work (Su-35 models currently do not conform to specifications, so the aircraft needs considerable redesigning), establishing an after-sales service system, and sets of aircraft armaments, is estimated at $750 million, which is comparable to the cost of 50 civilian regional aircraft (averaging $15 million each).

Kommersant’s sources advance several arguments in favor of this version. During President Putin’s just-concluded visit to China, the Chinese did not express any interest in continuing deliveries of Su-30MKK fighters built at the Komsomol-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association (KnAAPO). The company is completing deliveries under the last operating contract to 2006, after which there are effectively no more orders. If a contract is concluded with Brazil, production of the Su-35 will be set up at KnAAPO.

We note that an Embraer-175 flew to Russia for presentation in September (according to Kommersant’s information, Rosoboronexport facilitated the event). The plane even made a demonstration flight from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod, which caused a minor scandal: the foreign aircraft had not passed Russian registration and did not have the right to make passenger flights within the country. However, the scandal was quickly hushed up.

Kommersant has also obtained information that along with the production of the Su-135 at KnAAPO, there are plans to launch production of certain components and parts for Embraer passenger planes, which will be delivered to the company’s Chinese plant for final assembly and importation to Russia. The originators of this idea believe that this joint Brazilian-Chinese-Russian production should be exempt from duties. Presidential advisor Viktor Ivanov is supposed to supervise the project within Aeroflot (we remind our readers that he was nominated to Aeroflot’s board of directors and is considered one of the most likely candidates for its chairman).

However, Kommersant’s informants say that the issue of this deal has not been finally decided. The project’s fate should become clear closer to President Vladimir Putin’s upcoming visit to Brazil in November for talks with Brazilian President Lula da Silva.

We note that in this case Russian civilian aircraft manufacturers will lose the chance to receive even a small portion of Aeroflot’s order. A rolling-out ceremony for the first assembled model of the An-148, which IFK is offering for the Aeroflot tender, took place at the Aviant plant in Kiev on Friday. Aleksandr Rubtsov, IFK’s general manager, told journalists that the An-148’s commercial success depends to a great extent on winning this tender. In response to the question as to which modification would be used for the first five An-148s produced in 2006, Mr. Rubtsov said: “It all depends on when a contract with Aeroflot is signed”. He made the following comments yesterday on information that Embraer would be delivering all the airliners: “I’m not informed about who is lobbying for what. It’s a politically complex and ambiguous question. Any decision has to take into account the interests of airlines, the aircraft industry, and the state. Of course, we would like very much to win the tender, but I don’t see any tragedy in losing either.”

Phantom II,

The new ARM (locally named MAR-1) are in the development phase, will take some time to have it operational. Today, Brazilian AMXs only carriers iron bombs, Mk82, 84 and Durandal (local developed based on the French bomb) as well as unguided rockets. Brazilian companies are developing a wide range of PGMs to be introduced to the fleet of AMXs as well as to the upgraded F-5 fleet.

Brazilian AMXs were recently equiped with litening pods, a move to integrate PGMs into the fleet. For the recce role, Brazilian AMXs use a locally developed recce pod called Gespi as well as a british one named Vicon, with stand-off capacity as well as infrared. Currently FAB is finalizing the purchase of some Reccelites pods from Israel to integrate on the fleet.

By 2007, the fleet of 53 AMXs (33 operational spread out in three squadrons) will be upgraded with new avionics and a more powerful radar, developed here in Brazil. One squadron is based on Rio de Janeiro state(Santa Cruz AB) and the other two are based at Rio Grande do Sul state (Santa Maria AB) one of them is responsible for the recce role.