MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil’s Embraer moves into the defence and security industry

The Super-Tucano, one of Embraer’s successes

Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer on Friday unveiled a new subsidiary to focus solely on the defence and security industry, in a further move beyond from its core civil aviation business. The company said in a statement its new Embraer Defence and Security unit will be headed by Chief Financial Officer Luiz Carlos Aguiar.

“The defence and security unit and will expand the company’s market beyond aerospace and allow it to boost growth through increased exports”, Chief Executive Officer Federico Felury Curado said on Friday.

“We’re talking about applications for the army, for the navy, and for security forces like the police,” Curado said from Sao Paulo.

Embraer’s new business will surpass 1.5 billion Real in sales next year, the company said in an e-mailed statement Friday. In 2009, Embraer had 949 million Reais ($553.8 million) in sales from its defence division.

The world’s fourth-largest aircraft-maker produces the light attack aircraft known as Super-Tucano and is developing a military transport, dubbed KC-390, that should have its first flight in 2014. Embraer also manufactures jets for government personnel transport and for surveillance, mostly based on its commercial jet platforms.

Embraer is the only Brazilian company able to “put itself in the centre of the chain” of the defence and security market, Curado said. “Occupying such a role would inevitably amplify our ability to export.”