It will be equipped with an Italian anti-aircraft defense system of medium height and range, in accordance with a cooperation agreement between the two governments.
The decision is part of an ordinance signed on December 22nd by General Francisco Humberto Montenegro Júnior, chief of the Army General Staff, published in the Force’s bulletin on Friday (9).
The ordinance establishes guidelines for the purchase and cooperation in the development of equipment. No contract dates are mentioned.
As shown by Sheetthe municipality of Jundiaí, in , will initially be responsible for .
The 12th GAC (Field Artillery Group), from Jundiaí, changed its name last July to the 12th GAAAe (12th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Group).
By 2039, within the Force 40 modernization project, it is expected that the unprecedented implementation in the country of a medium-height anti-aircraft defense system will be completed, with missiles that can reach 15 km in height (around 50 thousand feet) and a radius of up to 40 km away (which can reach 60 km).
Currently, the country only has low-altitude ground-based anti-aircraft defense, with a range of up to 3 km.
Without mentioning the investment values — which could reach almost R$4 billion, according to people familiar with the matter —, the ordinance explains that the equipment to be acquired is from the multinational group MBDA, which has among its origins.
When contacted to discuss estimated costs and deadlines, the Army did not respond until the publication of this report.
The ordinance says that the Italian Emads system (Enhanced Modular Air Defense Solutions or, in literal translation, modular air defense solutions) uses extended-range CAMM-ER missiles, similar to those used by the Navy on Tamandaré-class frigates, which are under construction in Itajaí (SC).
Among several justifications for the purchase, he also praises the radar sets.
The document also reports on the history of other bilateral military agreements between the two countries, from the acquisition of the first submarines by the Brazilian Navy in 1914, to Air Force planes and Army armored vehicles.
Also according to the document, a specific international government-to-government agreement, between Italy and Brazil, could allow for better financing conditions, deadlines, maintenance, parts replacement, and guaranteed support over decades.
It also claims to have a report pointing out that the Italian government has a G2G (government-to-government) structure for developed and mature cooperation.
Among others, the system to be obtained must have three anti-aircraft batteries, one for command, to coordinate fire, and two for missiles.
They also include eight-cell missile launchers.
The document details that the contract should supply 60 missiles per battery group, 48 of which are operational and 12 for training.
Initially, 20 soldiers will be trained abroad, but the agreement provides for the possibility of this training being carried out in Brazil.
Brazil even studied the purchase of the German IRIS-T SLM/SLS, from Diehl Defense, or the Aster (SAMP/T), from the French Eurosam, as Brigadier General Marcos José Martins Coelho, at the time commander of the Army’s Anti-Aircraft Defense, told reporters last October.
Investment in medium-height weapons has been on paper since 2012 and was identified as essential, according to a decree published by the Army in July, with the project guidelines.
The new document was signed amid the military advance of those in the region, who on the 3rd captured the dictator of , , and his wife, Cilia Flores, who are imprisoned in New York.
“We are on the border, they [Venezuela] They are a border country. It’s not fundamental, it’s not why we’re doing it [a compra do armamento]. But it reinforces the idea that we need the equipment,” the general told Sheet at the time, in his then office at the Army Anti-Air Defense Command, at Forte dos Andradas, in ().
The deployment of terrestrial air defense of medium height and range is explained in the document to solve part of the problem represented by the evolution of the situation in the world and in the country’s strategic surroundings, “characterized by the outbreak of conflicts and large-scale confrontations with the massive use of aerospace means and vectors with a varied range of possibilities and high lethality”.
