France has agreed to sell two Mistral helicopter carriers to Egypt for 950 million Euros after their sale to Russia was canceled in August, French officials said on Wednesday.
Sweden's Saab AB prevailed over U.S. giant Boeing and French manufacturer Dassault Aviation in a competition to supply the Brazilian air force with 36 aircraft to replace its aging Mirage 2000s, Brazil said Wednesday.
France will lose out in its bid to win a multi-billion-dollar fighter jet contract with Brazil, the Folha de Sao Paulo daily reported over the week-end. It said France’s 4 billion dollars proposal for 36 Rafale fighter jets, from a consortium led by French giant Dassault, will be shot down for cost reason.
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.
France is to cut more than 30,000 defence posts and reduce or delay orders for jet fighters and other equipment as the socialist government seeks to balance the need for stringent spending cuts with a bid to sustain the country’s role as a big military power.
Seeking to build “one of the great partnerships” of the 21st century, British Prime Minister David Cameron begins a three-day official visit to India on Monday during which he will meet his counterpart Manmohan Singh and discuss issues of common interest.
The Brazilian air force, awaiting the outcome of the selection process for purchasing 36 fighter jets, is leaning toward the F-18 Super Hornet of the US, which is competing against the French Dassault Rafale and the Swedish Gripen, Istoe magazine said.
Brazil's defence industry is booming, fuelled by government incentives to modernize the country's armed forces and develop a robust, export-oriented military industrial complex. With the world's sixth largest economy, Brazil was ranked as the eighth largest arms exporter in the 1980s but currently languishes in 30th place, according to industry experts
Brazilian Air Force has asked bidders to renew their offers on a contract to provide 36 next-generation fighter jets, extending for six months a race between US, French and Swedish contestants.
Brazil will get US advanced technology transfers if it buys Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet to upgrade its air force, visiting US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said on Wednesday.