MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Russia making inroads as defence and technology supplier to Brazil

Brazil’s Celso Amorim and Russia's Defence Minister Shoigu (Pic AFP)

Brazil is pushing ahead with a planned one billion dollars purchase of anti-aircraft missile batteries from Russia in a deal that will cement a strategic defence partnership between the two BRICS nations, the Brazilian Defence Ministry said.

Brazilian officials said they expect to sign a contract by the middle of 2014 for short- to medium-range surface-to-air Pantsir S1 missile batteries and Igla-S shoulder-held missiles.

In December, Brazil bought 12 Mi-35 attack helicopters - a type dubbed the 'flying tank' - in its first purchase from Russia of military hardware. Brazil has traditionally obtained its weapons from the United States and Europe.

Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, on a visit to Peru and Brazil to promote sales of Russian weaponry, also proposed in Brasilia the joint development of a fifth-generation fighter jet, defence officials said.

Brazil's Air Force has been looking for a decade to buy 36 fourth-generation jets to replace its aging fighter fleet, but Russia's Sukhoi Su-35 is not currently in the running for the contract worth more than 4bn dollars.

The selection process is already underway and will not be reopened, Brazilian Defence Minister Celso Amorim said after meeting with Shoigu. Amorim said he hopes President Dilma Rousseff will decide “soon” between Boeing Co.'s F-18 Super Hornet, the Rafale made France's Dassault Aviation SA and the Gripen offered by Sweden's Saab AB.

Amorim told reporters Brazil was nevertheless interested in discussing the development of a future jet fighter with new partners. “More than buying military equipment, what we are seeking with Russia is a strategic partnership based on the joint development of technology” he said.

The terms of the deal that was first proposed in February during a visit to Brazil by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev require Russia to transfer the technology to build the anti-aircraft batteries to Brazilian defence companies without restriction.

Amorim said defence cooperation between the two members of the BRICS group of leading emerging nations, which also includes China, India and South Africa, could “counterbalance” other options that Brazil wants to keep open - a reference to traditional arms suppliers such as the United States.

Amorim said Russia and Brazil would also look at working together on space technology and on defence against cyber attacks, an area that has become a Brazilian priority since disclosures that the US National Security Agency has spied on Brazilians, their president and the country's largest oil company.

The former Soviet Union was a main supplier of military hardware to Peru and Cuba, and most recently Russia has signed several billion dollars contract with Venezuela and also supplies Bolivia, among other countries from the region.