After more than a year of negotiations, Brazil and Sweden signed this Saturday (9) a letter of intent to promote a combined deal in which the FAB will buy more, while the Nordic country will acquire KC-390 tactical transport aircraft.
for the Sheet in September last year. Now, the Defense Ministers of both countries, José Mucio Monteiro and Pal Jonson, put the commitment on paper during the Swede’s visit to Natal.
of the Air Force, which brings together aircraft such as the powerful American F-15, Chile’s F-16, the KC-390 itself and models from other countries. In the case of Brazil, it is the debut of its new fighter, the Swedish Gripen, with 7 of its 8 units in the country in action.
“Aerospace cooperation is important for Sweden and Brazil. The new letter of intent provides a basis for us to further deepen this cooperation,” said Jonson.
As the name suggests, there is still a lot to negotiate, but the document gives materiality to a deal that had been dragging on for various reasons, starting with the resistance of sectors of the Swedish Air Force to replacing the American model C-130 Hercules with the KC-390 .
Dissatisfied, the purchase of a batch of second-hand American F-16 fighters, probably from some cheaper European stock, to primarily cover the lack of AMX attack aircraft, which will be retired next year.
In practice, it was more pressure: to turn an F-16, a plane designed for air-to-air combat, into an attack plane, a specific avionics and weapons package is needed that would turn any purchase into something much more complex and expensive. .
Brazilian budgetary issues, which have already been resurfacing the Gripen program, were on the table. The proposal on the table foresees an increase in the Brazilian fleet of Swedish fighter jets within the 25% allowed as an addendum to the contract signed in 2014.
In current values, this would amount to something like R$4 billion more, to be amortized over 25 years, but with prior annual disbursements. At a time when spending cuts are on the agenda, making this viable seems complex.
Nothing guarantees the final model. Last year, the president () with the Swedes during a delegation visit to Brasília, without success.
The fact that, with all the delays so far, the program is unique in terms of technological transfer, speaks in favor of Gripen. The plane is the most advanced in Latin America and already has its own units, a Saab partner, in the interior of São Paulo.
Critics in the market see a narrow horizon for the model, given the change in the European security landscape with the World War, which provoked a race by countries on the continent for the American fifth-generation F-35.
Still, after losing important contracts, Gripen obtained a second external customer for its new generation, E/F, after Brazil: Thailand, which operates the previous model of the aircraft,
Critics of the modeling of the Brazilian program say that the transfer acquired by Embraer and other Brazilian companies, in addition to the FAB, will have reduced usefulness if the Gripen does not find a market in Latin America, where Colombia is mainly studying its acquisition.
For Embraer, the letter is great news, as it confirms yet another country from , the largest military alliance in the world, as its likely client. The KC-390, in the KC aerial refueling version, the C, for transport only Hungary, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, all members of the US-led club, and Austria, which is close to it.
The plane is also on South Korea’s shopping list and, in what would represent a huge gain of scale if it occurs, India and . Any of these countries will require the opening of a
Brazil, the starting customer, reduced its order from 28 to 19 aircraft. Seven of them already fly in the country, in addition to two Portuguese units and another Hungarian one. The São Paulo manufacturer is also targeting the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Chile.
