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.

Hey, thanks for a sensible contribution. This thread was going down faster than a cow dung. And starting to smell the same, too.

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.

Indeed preparedness is a valid reason. Then one can weigh the value of this “preparedness” (in the absence of any short- or mid-term foreseable strategic threat) against the millions of destitute poors, and make priorities. To my understanding this is exactly what Lula did, and I can’t blame him.

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.

And for this also helos will likely be more useful than fast jets 😀

Rather than thinking about the military difficulty of striking Iran for the Israeli AF, you may want to consider the political difficulty.
They’d have to go through US-controlled Iraq. Who would either resist the strike (and that is one difficulty: whether it can be done or not, Israel does not want to kill US troops) or would be “an accomplice” to the strike. And that is a bigger difficulty.

IMO if the strike happens, it will be cruise missiles from the recently-modified subs.

But then again, to make sense, it would prolly have to be a nuke strike. Well deserved and all, maybe, but still raising other political difficulties…

The West probably no longer has the balls to eliminate its enemies. It will cost freaking dear someday, but that’s where we’re at.

Anyone have any of these?
10.Jordan S-70A Blackhawk

Not easy requests, man. I got only one for you.

But for the same price you get the Queen 😀

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”.

Anyway IIRC when Lula was elected the frontrunner was not Dassault, but IAI with refurbished Kfir C-10s offered in leasing.

I don’t remember for how long the lease was intended, IIRC a few years to bridge the gap until the new plane was purchased. But these kind of interim solutions have a nasty tendency to live very long.

Separately, I fully agree with the view that Brazil needs a lot of police-capable planes and helos A LOT MORE than it needs a few high-perf fighters. IMO a combination of troop-carrying gunship helos and COIN-type attack planes would serve the country better, even it bruises some macho egos.
A mixed force of say, AV-8B harriers + Mil Mi-24 (or -25, -35, whatever) Hind would be perfect to fight the drug cartels and police the Amazonhas.

This, and a few BLU-82s for the FOBs 😀 😀 😀

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…

It was not only a question of backup. It was mainly a question of market and mission. For those who remember the parlance of that time, the SM4000 was for the kind of air forces that wanted “air superiority over Hanoi when flying out of Saigon”, whereas the M2000 was for fighting around the frontline.

Well, the French air force decided that they would not attempt “air superiority over Kiev when flying out of Colmar”, which was prolly a wise decision. 😀 😀 😀
The targetted customers for the SM4000 were the Gulf petromonarchies, and Dassault’s marketing drive was pretty successful. But there was hiccup in the price of oil at the wrong time….

Attached is a Dassault pic showing the striking similarity of M2k-SM4k.

Thanks a lot, Spurg002, for the Libyan and Syrian pictures.
They are so rare…

Would you have any more?

Great pictures, the insignia is quite strange so I think it should be an UNITA plane with mercenaries, is it true ???

Yes, I believe so.