MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Brazil’s multi-billion jet fighter purchase will be decided by Dilma Rousseff
Lula da Silva is known to prefer the French “Rafale” package Brazilian President Lula da Silva has said he will not make a decision on a multi-billion-dollar jet fighter purchase before stepping down on January 1, state media reported.
Late Monday, Lula told official television station TV Brasil that it would be up to the government of his successor, Dilma Rousseff, to decide the issue.
“It's a very big debt; it's a long-term debt for Brazil. I could sign off on it and do a deal with France, but I'm not going to do that,” Lula said, according to an excerpt published by the state news agency Agencia Brasil.
France, United States and Sweden are competing for the contract to sell 36 fighter-bombers valued at over four to seven billion US dollars. The three presentations have been considered by a team of experts from the Brazilian Air Force and Lula da Silva is known to be inclined for the French Rafale.
Lula da Silva admitted however that the final decision much depends on what the National Defence Council (ministers plus Armed Forces commanders in chief) suggests.
In that line of thinking Defence minister Nelson Jobim, who has been at the heart of the negotiations with France’s D’Assault, Sweden’s Saab NG (Grippen) and Boeing (F18), has been confirmed in his post by president elect Rousseff.
Last November Jobim said that the French offer was the best in so far it included technology transfer, the crucial nerve of all Brazilian defence procurements.
The Brazilan Air Force apparently is more inclined for the US F 18, but the technology package is the most frugal.
On confirming Jobim in Defence, Ms Rousseff also announced that a special Civil Aviation Secretariat would be created, bringing together different departments that currently are in the orbit of Defence.
The new Secretariat will depend directly from the Executive office.
Apparently the purpose of such a modification is to streamline Brazilian airports’ infrastructure (very poorly rated internationally) with private investors and ahead of the full traffic agenda of 2014 and 2016 when Brazil will host the World Cup and the Olympics.
Top Comments
Disclaimer & comment rules-
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Read all commentsF 18 Is a lot cheaper, by a large ammount so they could afford more of these. But the french Rafale is an amazing jet.
Dec 07th, 2010 - 07:49 pm 0In this electronic time and age (and if we are going to buy stupid arms anyway), technology transfer should be THE crucial factor of all South American defence procurements.
Dec 07th, 2010 - 08:57 pm 0The French are offering it.
The American not.
Just imagine ………………… 36 young Brazilian ”Top Guns” sitting in their shiny new American F18 cockpits ready to take off against a potential American invasion.
Suddenly a sensual female voice with deep Texan accent can be heard……. ……..
“You are not authorized to use this vehicle”
“It will autodestruct in three seconds”
“Have a nice journey”
Good Booooooooooooooooooooom
Brazil has tied the purchase of the aircrafts with technology transfer. The problem with the US is that, even if it commits to technology transfer, it is likely to veto sales of the F18 to countries that are not aligned with it. When Brazil tried to sell a set of Embraer-made small jets called SuperTucano to Venezuela, the US vetoed the process because parts of the aircraft contained US technology.
Dec 07th, 2010 - 10:03 pm 0France is not likely to veto sales of its aircrafts. But the Rafale also has that same problem: some of its parts include US technology, and so does the third contender to F18 and Rafale, the Swedish Gripen.
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