Brazil's to Modernize Military & Strengthen Defense Industry

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Brazil's Lula to Modernize Military & Strengthen Defense Industry

Seeks to develop a nuclear-powered submarine and strengthen the space program for making and launching satellites



BRASILIA -- President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva presented the guidelines of a new defense plan for modernizing Brazil's armed forces and the nation's defense industry "so as not to depend on foreign countries."

"Launching this plan means treating the armed forces as seriously as they deserve. It will serve to modernize equipment, armored vehicles, ships and armament. It will reorganize the three forces and restructure the defense industry," Lula said Thursday at a ceremony in the presidential palace.

The first pillar of the plan will be the renewal of all obsolete armament, equipping the army, navy and air force adequately, which in turn will mean developing a nuclear-powered submarine and strengthening the space program for making and launching satellites.

The government is already in talks with France for a transferral of the latter's technology to Brazil for submarine construction, which will open the doors to "development on an industrial scale" of the nuclear-fuel production cycle, including the enrichment of uranium, the document says.

The second pillar supports a restructuring of the domestic defense industry in order to stop importing equipment and to achieve self-sufficiency.

The third seeks to revise military policy by "reformulating" the the composition of the three services in order to "integrate the armed forces into Brazilian society," in Lula's words.

According to the document, obligatory military service will be carefully watched to make sure that the armed forces "reproduce" the Brazilian population in its composition, both in its social as well as geographical differences.

The plan also contemplates unifying the work of the three services and ending the current concentration of military installations and garrisons in Brazil's populous and comparatively wealthy southeastern states.

Larger contingents will be sent to the west and the Amazon region, considered a priority for "dissuading the concentration of hostile forces" on Brazil's borders and on its waterways.

It also touches on the need to promote mechanisms of regional integration such as the recently launched South American Defense Council, "which will prevent conflicts and promote regional military cooperation" as well as the "integration of the industrial foundations of defense."

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?Arti...tegoryId=14090

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Brazil to Boost Troops in Amazon, Weapons Industry

Brazil to boost troops in Amazon, rebuild weapons industry

By MARCO SIBAJA Associated Press Writer
BRASILIA, Brazil December 18, 2008 (AP)

The Associated Press


File picture Brazilian army soldiers on paradde in Leticia, Colombia, in the Amazon region near the border with Brazil and Peru, Sunday, July 20, 2008.
(William Fernando Martinez/AP Photo)

Brazil will beef up troops in its vast Amazon rain forest, build nuclear and conventional submarines to protect offshore oil fields and modernize its weapons industry under a national defense plan outlined in a report Thursday.

Strategic Affairs Minister Roberto Mangabeira Unger said the plan calls for investments to modernize and equip the armed forces, create a rapid deployment force and update its weapons industry. Officials did not provide a cost estimate.

"The plan includes the restructuring of Brazil's weapons industry to guarantee the supply of defense material without depending on foreign suppliers," President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said at a ceremony to unveil the plan.

Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said the government will increase the number of troops in the Amazon from 17,000 to 25,000, though he did not offer a timetable.

The report says Brazil "will develop its capacity to design and manufacture conventional and nuclear submarines" to protect its coastline, as well as recently discovered offshore oil reserves that could hold up to 55 billion barrels of oil.

"Investments will be accelerated and partnerships established to execute the nuclear submarine project," the report said.

France has promised to provide Brazil with technology to build the Scorpene diesel attack submarine, which officials hope to use to develop what would be Latin America's first nuclear-propelled sub.

Brazil's defense industry was the largest in the developing world in the mid-1980s, but it declined along with demand after the end of the Cold War.

In 1990, the country's two largest arms manufacturers, Engesa and Avibras, sought protection from creditors for debts of about US$200 million.

Brazil says any defense partnership must help the country develop its weapons industry.

"We will not simply be buyers or clients, but partners," Mangabeira said earlier this year. "Any arrangement into which we will enter must, in principle, contemplate a significant element of research and development in Brazil."

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Internatio...ory?id=6492036

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Obama and the new Latin America

By Pepe Escobar inauguration, the Barack Obama presidency and Latin America already seem to be on a collision course.

This Tuesday, in a groundbreaking, wide-ranging, 33-country Latin American and Caribbean summit coordinated by the Brazilian government, Raul Castro - in his first trip abroad since taking over from Fidel in 2006 - saw Cuba accepted as the 23rd member of the Group of Rio political forum, a body created in 1986 to promote Latin American cooperation.

All the leaders at the summit said in unison, "This is a historic moment." Then the forum immediately condemned and demanded the end of the US embargo against Cuba in effect since February 1962.

So it's not an accident that on the same day, President George W Bush's Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, a fierce anti-Castro Cuban-American, declared the US would not lift the embargo. The leaders gathered at the summit took it for what it is: not only as a "message" to Latin America but as a torpedo launched towards the Obama submarine. But one thing is certain: "The wall has been pierced," as Argentinian daily Pagina 12 headlined it. The US strategy towards Latin America has completely failed - and Obama will have to pick up the pieces.

Deconstructing Raul
Even before the Obama inauguration, Michael Shifter, vice president of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, stressed, "The issues that have dominated Latin America relations - immigration, US trade barriers on agricultural products and Cuba - remained in dispute." Shifter said, "Latin America wants the US to be engaged, but in very different terms that it has in the past. In any case, they're not waiting around for the US to change its mindset."

The New York Times was reduced to carping about the US being "dismissed" from the summit in Brazil. No wonder: for anyone who had not already noticed, the summit buried for good the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, which declared Latin America off-limits to European powers.

Not only the US was not invited - the same happened to former colonial powers Spain and Portugal. Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim praised "countries of all ideological strands harboring the common desire of integrating Latin American and the Caribbean as their common space".

Amorim does not see hegemony as a good deal even for the US itself, "They don't want it, and it's not feasible. This doesn't mean we can't have a very good relation with the US."

The only absent heads of state happened to be two close Bush administration pals, Peru's Alan Garcia and Colombia's Alvaro Uribe. As for Raul Castro, he was the true star of the show. Very diplomatic, he did not attack the US frontally, but roundly condemned neo-liberal policies and attributed the global financial crisis to an "unjust and selfish economic order".

Castro is nonetheless hopeful, "If Mr Obama wants to have a discussion, we will. It's increasingly difficult to isolate Cuba. We are small, but we have shown we cannot be easily dominated." He denied that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has offered to be a mediator between himself and Obama.

For his part, Lula did send a clear message to Obama, saying his US presidential victory would truly become historic only when he lifted the US blockade on Cuba: "This has no economic explanation, no political explanation, it is meaningless." Lula definitely has his eyes set on the big picture. The Foreign Ministry considers Brazil to be one of the very few countries in the world capable of establishing a simultaneous dialogue with Cuba, Venezuela's

President Hugo Chavez and any US administration, be it Bush or Obama.
Raul Castro, compared with legendary "Comandante" Fidel, is more of a moderate, politically and economically. After a groundbreaking visit to Fidel by Lula in early 2008, Raul started to consider the possibility of Cuba distancing itself a teeny bit from Venezuela without of course hurting Chavez's feelings. Lula's

Workers Party's close ties with Cuba and Fidel have been very solid since the 1970s. What the Brazilian Foreign Ministry has suggested is for Raul to make a gesture towards the international community - if not a gradual but significant political opening at least the release of political prisoners. This would prove Cuba has embarked on a genuine transition and is not simply reproducing the Chinese model in Latin America.

Lula has been at his optimistic best, "There was a time when brother Hugo Chavez was alone. Who could have imagined, 10 years ago, that our dear Evo Morales would be the president of Boliva? Who could have imagined that a liberation theology bishop [Fernando Lugo] would be president of Paraguay?" Evo - stressing Latin American solidarity with Havana, and successive, anti-embargo United Nations resolutions - has proposed Latin America delivers an official deadline for the US to suspend the economic blockade.

Chavez stressed the global financial crisis "has the effect of a thousand hurricanes", and that required Latin American and Caribbean regional integration, while Paraguay's Fernando Lugo blamed "structural asymmetries". Chavez, in his trademark Garcia Marquez literary character ranting mode, insisted the crisis would get worse because capitalism is not "Obama's or Bush's, it is evil".

Chavez sees the capitalist world "tumbling down" as a consequence of the global crisis, and the cause is the Washington model imposed on the rest of the world; he praises instead Lula's "Latin-Americanist" thinking.

Enter China, Russia, Iran

A case can be made that Brazil and Venezuela are fiercely positioning themselves for regional leadership. Brazil is a natural leader of Mercosur (the South American common market) and Unasur (the Union of South American nations) while Venezuela is a natural leader of ALBA (the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas).

ALBA was launched in 2005 by Venezuela as a counterpunch to the Bush administration's failed offensive of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Unasur was formed in May 2008 by 12 countries to mediate serious conflicts such as the separatists vs government clashes in Bolivia, thus bypassing the discredited, US-dominated Organization of American States (OAS).

But it's all interlinked; Mercosur, for instance, will absorb Bolivian exports boycotted by the US as "punishment" for Bolivia expelling the US Drug Enforcement Administration (whose agents were accused of conspiring to overthrow Evo). Chavez seems to be comfortable with the interlocking mechanisms - he prefers to identify an emerging collective regional leadership, "leader countries, male leaders, female leaders, people's leaders".

All bets are off on how the Obama presidency will adapt to the new Latin American "political-ideological profile", as Lula put it, and that includes, of course, expanded diplomatic, economic and military ties with China, Russia and Iran. That means Russian warships - including a nuclear cruiser - in joint naval exercises with Venezuela, a first since the Cold War; Chinese President Hu Jintao signing a free-trade agreement with Peru; Lula inviting Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad for a state visit; and Ecuador's President Rafael Correa refusing to renew the lease on the US's Manta base, defended by the Bush administration as a critical platform for the "war on drugs" - an assumption widely ridiculed all over South America.

Chavez has bought $4.4 billion in weapons from Russia after the Bush administration blocked sales of aircraft parts to Venezuela. Brazil and France signed a deal for four nuclear submarines to patrol Brazil's rich Atlantic oil basins. China, and not the US, is now Chile's biggest copper export market; a true New Copper Road, sea lane rather, is now on from the southern Pacific to East Asia.

China is Cuba's second-largest trading partner (after Venezuela), with annual bilateral trade at over US$2.6 billion. China has pledged $10 billion in loans to Brazil's oil giant Petrobras to develop the Western hemisphere's largest oil discovery since 1976. And by 2012, Caracas will be selling 1 million barrels of oil a day to Beijing. No wonder Chinese President Hu Jintao declared at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru that "China and South America have already become extremely good friends and partners".

Julia Sweig, director of the Latin America program at the Council of Foreign Relations, sums it all up, "Monroe certainly would be rolling over in his grave."

The Bush administration's countermove - resurrecting the Fourth Fleet from the dead after 58 years to ostensibly "patrol the Caribbean" - sent shivers all over Latin America. Chavez threatened to sink them. Lula demanded an official explanation from the Bush administration.

Chavez' demonization anyway remains a burgeoning cottage industry in Washington. As the groundbreaking summit in Brazil went on, over 100 top experts on Latin America were sending an open letter to the board of directors of Human Rights Watch blasting a recent report on Venezuela, "A Decade Under Chavez: Political Intolerance and Lost Opportunities for Advancing Human Rights in Venezuela", stressing that it "does not meet even the most minimal standards of scholarship, impartiality, accuracy or credibility". The signers included leading scholars from Harvard, Johns Hopkins and New York University and from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Britain and Venezuela.

Obama's foreign policy attention will be totally focused on the Pentagon-coined "arc of instability" from the Middle East to Central Asia. But he has aroused enormous expectations in Latin America. During the campaign, Obama opposed a free-trade agreement with Colombia, on the - correct - grounds of vicious state repression of workers and peasants.

Obama will have to confront Alvaro Uribe and determine any meaningful change to Plan Colombia - a Pentagon "war on terror" gambit disguised as a failed, Bill Clinton-born anti-drug program. He has promised to increase US economic aid to Latin America; governments don't want aid, they want partnerships. He also pledged to meet with Chavez and Raul Castro "without preconditions" (and then backtracked). He claimed he is "committed" to Latin America. But how will he interpret the new rules of the game - a fast integrating Latin America where the US is just another player among many?

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/JL19Ad01.html

[Ryan Ruck]

Remember the BRIC alliance...

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Remember the BRIC alliance...

BINGO!!!





How far is France willing to go for Putin?

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World economy will be built of BRIC

Published Date: 22 December 2008

By PETER RANSCOMBE



DEVELOPING countries will continue to grow their economics during the current global downturn, Ernst & Young's Item Club said today, as it warned of "tectonic shifts" in global capital over the coming decade.

Brazil, Russia, India and China (Bric) will together contribute 40 per cent of global economic growth between 2009 and 2020, the accountancy firm said.

China is set to become the world's biggest economy in purchasing power parity terms by 2019, It em Club suggested.

While the economies of developing countries continue to grow, the economic forecasting group said that 77 per cent of world cash reserves – totalling almost $7 trillion (£4.7tr) – are being held by emerging markets. It also warned that, even if the oil price stays at only $60 a barrel over the next five years, the assets held by sovereign wealth fund could increase five-fold to as much as $15tr by 2013.

Adrian Cooper, a senior economic advisor to Item Club, said the increase would make the funds "an even more significant factor in global financial – and political – dynamics".

He added: "Whilst it is not inevitable that the global growth dynamics of the past decade will continue indefinitely, the strong domestic momentum in the large emerging economies, the productivity gains from their continued integration into the global economy and benefits from improved macro and micro economic policies will mean that the next decade sees an impressive rate of expansion."

The next decade will also feature a "major" shift in terms of the distribution of industrial production, according to Item Club, which predicted that Bric will account for 65 per cent of global basic metals output by 2020.

The Bric countries will produce 38 per cent of the world's chemicals, 30 per cent of vehicles and 28 per cent of electronics, the club said, with China accounting for the lion's share of growth in all of the sectors.

Mark Otty, Ernst & Young's area managing partner for Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa, said: "Companies and governments in the developed world have to face up to the reality that there will be a further shift in the economic balance of power in the years ahead."

http://business.scotsman.com/economi...ilt.4812783.jp

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Russia/Venezuela Military Ops and BRIC - (Brazil,Russia,India,China)

Moscow sends their fleet of battleships to S.America,and Pres.Medvedev strengthens military and trade ties with Brazil & Venezuela

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		Russia
		Latin American states vie for Russian weaponry at arms show
		11:43 | 20/ 04/ 2009

RIO DE JANEIRO, April 20 (RIA Novosti) - Latin American countries showed a growing interest in purchasing Russian-made weaponry during a recent arms show in Brazil, an official from Russia's state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said.

Latin America Aero and Defense (LAAD) is the largest and most important biennial event for the Armed Forces and defense industries of Latin American countries. This year it was held on April 14-18 in Rio de Janeiro.

"The countries of the region showed an increased interest in Russian aircraft and helicopters, armored vehicles, technical means for military training, and other military equipment including air defense systems," said Sergei Svechnikov, the head of Rosoboronexport delegation at LAAD-2009.

Russia was represented at the show by 10 defense industry companies, including the Sukhoi aircraft maker, which exhibited its Su-30MK and Su-35 fighters.
The Su-35 Flanker-E is participating in an ongoing tender for the delivery of over 100 fighters to the Brazilian Air Force. Russia will also start deliveries of 12 Mi-35 Hind attack helicopters to Brazil by the end of 2009.

"The results of working consultations and talks held in Rio de Janeiro confirm the trend for strengthening relations between Russia and Latin American countries, including in the sphere of military-technical cooperation," Svechnikov said.

Rosoboronexport sold about $8 billion worth of weaponry in 2008 and has a current portfolio of orders worth a total of $27 billion.

Russia exports weapons to about 80 countries. Although China and India remain key buyers of Russian-made weaponry, Moscow has been actively expanding its presence on arms markets in Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

For more information in Russian

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		Opinion & analysis
		Russia, Brazil to cooperate on fifth-generation fighter program
		18:14 | 09/ 04/ 2009

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti military commentator Ilya Kramnik)

Russia continues to look for partners to help implement its fifth-generation fighter program, also known as PAK FA - Prospective (promising) Aircraft System of the Frontline Aviation.

Apart from India, which has agreed to cooperate with Russia's Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC), now working on the fifth-generation fighter program, Brazil could also join in. Alexander Fomin, Deputy Director of Russia's Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, said Moscow and Brasilia were negotiating technology exchanges and the possibility of assembling PAK FA fighters in Brazil under a Russian license.

The new warplane is to replace the Russian Air Force's fourth-generation fighters in the next decade.

The Soviet Union launched fifth-generation fighter programs in the 1980s. By the mid-1990s, the Mikoyan Design Bureau developed the Project 1.44/1.42 warplane, also known as the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG MFI. MiG is now using this designation for an advanced MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter. Despite the non-production status of the 1.44/1.42 program, NATO assigned the reporting name Flatpack to it.

The Sukhoi Aviation Corporation came up with the S-37/Su-47 Berkut -- Golden Eagle/Firkin experimental supersonic forward swept-wing jet fighter. The S-37/Su-47 aircraft is an advanced technology demonstrator prototype not intended to be mass-produced.

Due to the lack of allocations, the Project 1.44/1.42 aircraft was not streamlined and never entered production.

By the late 1990s, it became obvious that existing fifth-generation fighter projects were becoming obsolete, that their production versions would be inferior to the brand-new Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor air-superiority fighter, and that the Air Force would receive such warplanes a decade too late.

In the early 2000s, the Russian government decided to develop an entirely new fifth-generation fighter. Sukhoi, Mikoyan and Yakovlev design bureaus boasting a reputation for their hard-hitting fighters offered several warplane versions.

The Sukhoi Aviation Corporation received project manager status and was placed in charge of the new T-50 fifth-generation fighter program.

Various maiden flight and supply deadlines were discussed from the very beginning. The T-50 was scheduled to perform its first flight in 2008-2010. In late 2008, Colonel General Alexander Zelin, Commander of the Russian Air Force, said the plane would take off for the first time in August 2009.

In the summer of 2008, the officials involved said the T-50 design had been approved and prototype aircraft blueprints sent to the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association (KNAAPO) in Russia's Far East where production will apparently be sited. KNAAPO is currently building three prototype T-50 fighters for subsequent tests, due to last five to six years, while mass production will not get underway before 2015.

Although T-50 specifications remain undisclosed, prototypes and the first production aircraft will be fitted with 117S (AL-41F1A) turbofan engines, a major upgrade of the AL-31F engine from Russian aircraft engine manufacturer NPO Saturn.

Consequently, the T-50 will be a heavy fighter with a take-off weight of more than 30 metric tons and will have the same dimensions as the well-known Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker. The Tikhomirov Instrument Engineering Research Institute which had invented the Irbis radar for the Su-35BM Flanker-E 4.5generation air-superiority/strike fighter is currently working on the T-50 radar.

It appears that the new fighter's radar and fire-control system will be developed on the basis of the Su-35BM's systems.

A search for foreign partners in the development and production of the fifth-generation aircraft has been caused by the desire to share a very high financial burden involved in it. The United States has opted for this road in the F-35 aircraft program.

Apart from investing in the fifth-generation fighter program, Brazil could provide Russia with state-of-the-art aviation technology. Notably, Brazilian aerospace conglomerate Embraer manufactures EMB-312 Tucano turboprop basic trainers and EMB-314 Super Tucano turboprop aircraft designed for light attack, counter-insurgency (COIN) and pilot-training missions.

Many analysts think both planes are especially adapted for low-intensity conflicts and are just as popular as fighters. Quire possibly, Russia will manufacture such planes using Brazilian technology.

[Ryan Ruck]

Brazil Could Make Russian New-Generation Fighters Under License

Russia may allow Brazil to produce its fifth-generation fighters under a license in the future, a senior Russian government official said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

"We are discussing with the well-known Brazilian company Embraer the transfer of technology and the construction of facilities for the future licensed production of the aircraft, including the fifth-generation fighter," said Alexander Fomin, deputy director of the Federal Service on Military-Technical Cooperation.

Russia's advanced multirole fighter is being developed by the Sukhoi aircraft maker, part of Russia's United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), along with India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), under a preliminary intergovernmental agreement signed in October 2007.

The first prototype is scheduled to make its maiden flight before the end of 2009.

Last November, Russia and Brazil signed a series of agreements on military technology cooperation which emphasize the protection of intellectual property rights and technology secrets.

The agreements will facilitate the transfer of technology and the licensed production of the Russian aircraft in Brazil if Moscow decides to sign a contract with the South American country.

Meanwhile, Russia's Su-35 jet fighter is participating in an ongoing tender for the delivery of over 100 fighters to the Brazilian Air Force.

"We are actively participating in the Brazilian tender, which has been reopened. It involves over 100 fighter planes. Russia has made a bid in the tender with its Su-35 multirole fighter. The tender has stiff requirements, involving not only the sale, but also the transfer of technology. It is a key condition of the deal and Russia is ready to satisfy it," Fomin said.

Brazil wants a multirole fighter to protect its national airspace as well as to keep track of smugglers in the Amazon basin and guard the country's offshore oil rigs. However, it also wants the multi-billion dollar contract to reenergize the domestic defense industry through home-grown production and as much technology transfer as can be afforded.

[Ryan Ruck]

Russia To Deliver Attack Helicopters To Brazil This Year

Russia will start deliveries of Mi-35 Hind attack helicopters to Brazil by the end of 2009, a senior government official said on Monday.

The Russian helicopter beat off fierce competition from the Augusta A-129 Mangusta and the Eurocopter AS-665 Tiger to win a Brazilian tender last fall.

"We have recently signed a contract to deliver 12 Mi-35 helicopters to Brazil. The first deliveries will start by the end of this year or the beginning of 2010," said Alexander Fomin, deputy director of the Federal Service on Military-Technical Cooperation.

The official said the contract was worth about $150 million.

The Mi-35 Hind E is an improved export version of the famed Mi-24 attack helicopter, which combines high fire power with a troop transport capability.

Fomin also said Russia's Su-35 fighter had a good chance of winning an ongoing tender for the delivery of over 100 fighters to the Brazilian Air Force.

Brazil wants a multirole fighter to protect its national airspace as well as to monitor smugglers in the Amazon basin and guard the country's offshore oil rigs. However, Brasilia also wants the multi-billion dollar contract to reenergize the domestic defense industry through home-grown production and as much technology transfer as can be afforded.

"We are actively participating in the Brazilian tender, which has been reopened. It involves over 100 fighter planes. Russia has made a bid in the tender with its Su-35 multirole fighter. The tender has stiff requirements involving not only the sale, but also the transfer of technology. It is a key condition of the deal and Russia is ready to satisfy it," the official said.

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DCNS passes major milestone towards one of Group’s biggest contracts ever with Brazilian submarines deal

06:54 GMT, September 8, 2009 On 3 September 2009,


(Photo: DCNS)

DCNS signed detailed contracts in Rio de Janeiro for the construction of four conventional-propulsion submarines for the Brazilian Navy and a vast technology transfer programme covering design assistance – under the Brazilian Navy’s design authority – with the non-nuclear portion of Brazil’s first nuclear-powered submarine and assistance with the design and construction of both a naval base and a naval shipyard.

This success follows the signing of a framework contract on 23 December 2008 under the strategic defence cooperation agreement between France and Brazil signed on the same day by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

“Brazil chose DCNS to supply state-of-the-art submarines tailored to the protection and defence of the country’s 8,500-kilometre coast,� said Admiral Júlio Soares de Moura Neto, Commander in Chief of the Brazilian Navy. “These vessels will feature advanced technologies and innovations developed in recent years for French Navy programmes, particularly with regard to hydrodynamics, acoustic discretion, automation and combat systems. They will also be designed for ease of maintenance, the key to improved operational availability.�

The submarines will be built by ItaguaÃ* Construções Navais, a joint venture set up by DCNS and Brazilian partner Odebrecht in late August. The joint venture has an initial capital of 10 million reals and will be responsible for management control. Odebrecht has a 59% interest and DCNS the remaining 41%. Through ItaguaÃ* Construções Navais, the programme will provide employment for over 700 people in Brazil over a period of 15 years.

DCNS Chairman & CEO Patrick Boissier said: “We are proud that Brazil’s highest authorities have chosen DCNS to modernise and renew their country’s submarine fleet. I am aware of the responsibilities that this entails and have no doubt that each DCNS team will do its share to ensure the complete success of this ambitious project. The contracts signed today confirm our technological standing on the world market and the wisdom of our international strategy focusing on engineering services, new construction work, and the operation and maintenance of defence facilities.�

More specifically

• The four conventional-propulsion submarines to be built by ItaguaÃ* Construções Navais in cooperation with DCNS which will act as design authority and prime contractor. DCNS plants and shipyards will supply a range of advanced-technology items.

• A local production and technology transfer programme will enable the Brazilian Navy and defence industry to contribute to the development and production of a range of systems and equipment.

• DCNS will provide design assistance – under the Brazilian Navy’s design authority – for the non-nuclear portion of Brazil’s first nuclear-powered submarine which will also be built by ItaguaÃ* Construções Navais.

DCNS will provide prime contractor assistance to Odebrecht for the construction of the naval shipyard that will build the five submarines covered by today’s contracts as well as a naval base for the Brazilian Navy.

The Brazilian conventional-propulsion submarines will be designed for all types of missions from anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare to special operations and intelligence gathering. The first one is scheduled to enter active service in 2017. Shipbuilding work will begin in a few months’ time.

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Brazilian Senate Approves Loan for French Nuclear-Powered Submarine and New Helicopters

15:41 GMT, September 3, 2009 BRASILIA, Brazil | The Senate in plenary session yesterday (Wednesday) approved, in a symbolic vote, two draft resolutions that authorize the Union of Brazil to obtain foreign loans amounting to 6.088 billion euros (BRL 17.0 billion), of which 4.324 billion euros (about BRL 12.1 billion) to build the first Brazilian nuclear-powered submarine as well as four conventional submarines, and 1.847 billion euros (about BRL 5.1 billion) for the production of 50 Eurocopter EC-725 transport helicopters.

These systems will be produced in Brazil, with technology transfers, as set out in the strategic partnership agreement signed in December 2008 by the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "These are key strategic projects for Brazilian defense and for the development of our industry", said Defense Minister Nelson Jobim. The draft resolutions approved on the evening of Wednesday have been enacted by the Senate President José Sarney.

The Submarine Development Program (Prosub) will cost a total of 6.790 billion euros (about BRL 19.0 billion), of which 4.324 billion euros (about BRL 12.1 billion) will be financed through the loans and 2.466 billion euros (BRL 6.9 billion) will be paid directly with funds from the Treasury.

Of this total envelope, 1.868 billion euros will be dedicated to the construction of the naval base and shipyard in Itaguai (Rio de Janeiro state). The loan to finance the submarines will be repaid by Brazil over 20 years (2010 to 2029) to a consortium of banks including BNP Paribas SA, Societe Generale, Calyon SA, Credit Industriel et Commercial, Natixis and Santander. The banks will disburse the funds to pay suppliers over 15 years, from 2010 to 2024.

The agreement with France provides for the project design and construction -- with transfer of technology -- of four conventional submarines, and of the non-nuclear part of one nuclear submarine; and of the shipyard and naval base for the construction and operation of the nuclear-powered submarine. More than 30 Brazilian companies will receive technology to produce about 35 thousand parts and items of the submarine.

The second loan is for the licence-manufacture of 50 Eurocopter EC-725 transport helicopters (Project HX BR). They will be built by the company's factory Helibrás in Itajubá (Mato Grosso state), and production will also benefit several companies to become suppliers. "Another advantage is that it was agreed with France that any export of helicopters to South America and Africa will be made by the Brazilian factory," said Minister Jobim.

This project will cost 1.847 billion euros (about BRL 5.1 billion), of which 1.764 billion euros (about BRL 4.9 billion) will be financed by the French side over nine years, and 83 million euros (BRL 232 million) will be disbursed by the Brazilian Treasury. The loan will be made by the following banks: Societe Generale, BNP Paribas SA, Calyon SA and Santander.

Each service -- navy, army and air force, will receive 16 helicopters to support their missions. Two more helicopters will be allocated to the Air Force to transport authorities.

PROSUB: In the case of submarines, the agreement with France stipulates that Brazil will receive only non-nuclear technologies relative to nuclear-powered submarine. Brazil has its own core nuclear technology, developed by the Navy over 30 years through Project Aramar. The construction of the submarine's nuclear reactor will be funded by the National Treasury and its development will also provide for the installation of small power plants for generating electricity.

The design of the nuclear submarine will be based on the French Scorpene model, adapted to Brazilian needs. France will transfer the technology necessary for its design and construction (Brazil today has only part of the construction technology). Technology for the design and construction of the shipyard and of the naval base, which must be suitable for a nuclear submarine, will also be transferred.

Due to technical and environmental requirements, the current sites and submarine base, located in the densely populated capital of Rio, cannot accommodate submarines with a nuclear reactor.

These facilities will be built by a Special Purpose Company (SPC), comprised of Brazil's Odebrecht (with 50% shareholding), France's DCNS (49%) and the Brazilian Navy (1%). The Union of Brazil, through its navy, will have a “golden share� in the SPC with veto rights.

The Brazilian construction company Odebrecht was chosen freely by the French company DCNS, without government interference. The only demand made by Brazil was that the work was played by a national builder, with the technology passed on by France.

Prosub: Schedule and financial disbursements to suppliers
(N.B.: BRL = Brazilian real; worth approx. 0.53 US dollars)

2009 - Disbursement: BRL 2.108 billion (€ 753 million) by Brazilian Treasury

2010 - Start of construction of the shipyard and Naval Base (until 2014)
Project Design of conventional submarines
Disbursement: BRL 2.314 billion (€ 826 million)

2011 - Start of construction of conventional submarine n°1 (delivery in 2014)
Home design nuclear-powered submarine (on the project until 2014)
Disbursement: BRL 2.165 billion (€ 773 million)

2012 - Disbursement: BRL 2.333 billion (€ 833 million)

2013 - Start of construction of conventional submarine n° 2 (delivery in 2017)
Disbursement: BRL 2.315 billion (€ 827 million)

2014 - Delivery of the shipyard and Naval Base
Disbursement: BRL 1.769 billion (€ 632 million)

2015 - Delivery of the conventional submarine n° 1
Completion of the nuclear powered submarine project design
Start of construction of submarine’s nuclear propulsion reactor (for 2020 delivery)
Start of construction of the conventional submarine n° 3 (delivery in 2019)
Disbursement: BRL 982 million (€ 351 million)

2016 - Start of construction of nuclear-powered submarine (for 2018 delivery)
Disbursement: BRL 905 million (€ 323 million)

2017 - Delivery conventional submarine n° 2
Start of construction of conventional submarine n° 4 (delivery in 2021)
Disbursement: BRL 832 million (€ 297 million)

2018 - Disbursement: BRL 783 million (€ 280 million)

2019 - Delivery of conventional submarine n° 3
Disbursement: BRL 665 million (€ 238 million)

2020 - Completion of construction of nuclear propulsion system
Disbursement: BRL 555 million (€ 198 million)

2021 - Delivery of the 4th and final conventional submarine
Delivery of the nuclear-powered submarine
Disbursement: BRL 440 million (€ 157 million)

2022 - Disbursement: BRL 189 million (€ 67 million)

2023 - Disbursement: BRL 125 million (€ 45 million)

2024 - Final Disbursement: BRL 254 million (€ 91 million)

Total: BRL 18.733 billion (€ 6.691 billion); Treasury payments will continue until 2029.


Project HX BR (EC-725 helicopters from Eurocopter)

2009 - Disbursement: € 83,333,333.00; helicopters delivered: 0
2010 - Disbursement: € 258,295,595.95 helicopters delivered: 3
2011 - Disbursement: € 70,341,804.66; helicopters delivered: 1
2012 - Disbursement: € 367,671,383.17; helicopters delivered: 4
2013 - Disbursement: € 322,791,190.31; helicopters delivered: 11
2014 - Disbursement: € 314,066,364.61; helicopters delivered: 9
2015 - Disbursement: € 222,870,890.10; helicopters delivered: 14
2016 - Disbursement: € 145,007,505.22; helicopters delivered: 8
2017 - Disbursement: € 62,976,049.98; helicopters delivered: 0
TOTAL-Disbursement: € 1,847,354,117.00; helicopters delivered: 50

----
(Issued in Portuguese only by the Brazilian Ministry of Defence; unofficial
translation by defense-aerospace.com)

[Ryan Ruck]

Brazil To Buy 36 Fighter Jets From France

September 8, 2009

The deal, estimated to be worth more than $2 billion, apparently hinged on France's willingness to transfer technology to the Brazilians, a step other bidders including Boeing were reluctant to take.

Stepping up an aggressive plan to fortify the defense of its valuable natural resources, Brazil said Monday that it had entered into a billion-dollar-plus agreement to buy 36 French fighter jets.

The deal was announced in a statement issued by Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Nicolas Sarkozy of France, who together took part in Brazil's Independence Day ceremonies in Brasilia. The precise value of the aircraft sale was not released pending final agreement on the terms but observers estimate its value at more than $2 billon.

The French aircraft manufacturer Dassault beat out Boeing and the Swedish aircraft company Saab in the closely watched bidding for one of the larger defense plums in recent years.

A decisive factor was France's willingness to transfer technology to Brazil in the course of supplying it with Rafale fighter jets. Saab, maker of Gripen jets, and Boeing, maker of F-18 Super Hornets, were reluctant to agree to such a transfer, Lula indicated in remarks last week in which he expressed a preference for the French planes.

Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said in April that such transfers would be a prerequisite henceforth of any major arms deals Brazil signs.

The agreement follows a long-term pact signed in December and valued at $11 billion, under which Brazil and France will jointly build five submarines, one of them nuclear-powered. The vessels will be built at a new shipyard in Itaguai, an industrial zone near Rio de Janeiro that includes three new steel factories.

In addition, France is selling Brazil 50 military helicopters that will be assembled at a factory to be built in Minas Gerais state.

In a defense plan unveiled last year, Brazil detailed what it saw as the need to militarily protect its growing reserves of offshore oil as well as natural resources in the Amazon basin. On Monday, Lula said that the French fighter jets would help Brazil defend its borders.

"We're going to produce equipment that reinforces our technological capacity to protect our natural riches,"Lula said. "Brazil is counting on a regional defense plan to integrate its development."

Over the last two years Brazil has announced the discovery of huge offshore oil reserves called Pre-salt in ultra-deep waters of the Atlantic that could make it a major global exporter and, according to Lula, finance its ascension to first world status.

The nation also has immense natural resources -- including timber, gold and uranium -- in its Amazon region that reportedly are being exploited illegally by groups said to include the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a leftist guerrilla group.

Brazil is not the only major country in the northern reaches of South America that is arming up. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has also been on an arms spending spree, buying aircraft, tanks and AK-47 assault weapons from Russia worth more than $3 billion. And the U.S. has given in excess of $4 billion in military aid to Colombia since 2000.

Despite the apparent loss of the Brazilian aircraft deal, U.S. arms manufacturers still lead the world by a large margin.

In a report issued over the weekend, the Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan branch of the Library of Congress, said that while global arms sales worldwide fell 7.6% in 2008 to $55.2 billion, the United States increased its share to $37.8 billion, or 68.4% of all sales.

Italy was a distant second with $3.7 billion in sales.

[vector7]

Brazil unveils massive navy buildup plans

The inclusion of nuclear powered submarines means Brazil will redouble its uranium enrichment effort. Officials are confident Brazil can produce up to 40 tons of enriched uranium a year.

by Staff Writers
Rio De Janeiro (UPI) Nov 22, 2010

Brazil's plans for a massive naval buildup, which would include nuclear-powered submarines, were greeted with concern that the country's huge defense outlay would trigger copycat actions in neighboring Latin American countries. Brazil's outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva justified the spending, financed by the country's commodity exports bonanza, as part of a strategy to secure Brazil's regional pre-eminence.

Brazil is campaigning for permanent membership of the U.N. Security Council as part of its strategy to assert its leadership on the continent. The initiative has already led to neighboring countries instigating programs to rival Brazil's military and nuclear expansion plans. Argentina announced a revival of its nuclear development program this month.

Officials said the navy was working on plans to build or incorporate in its fleet at least 26 submarines, six of them fueled by nuclear power. Last year Brazil signed strategic cooperation contracts with France that includes joint production of nuclear-powered submarines.

Despite chronic poverty and poor urban development for most of its population, Brazil boasts a highly developed and sophisticated minority community of highly qualified scientists and technicians active in the country's defense industry.

Lula revived defense manufacturing that was left moribund when the military was replaced by democratic rule in the 1980s and after setbacks received when the Iraq-Iran war's end decimated Brazil's arms industry.

The new procurement plan is likely to be completed in three decades and, once implemented, officials said, it will make Brazil's navy the most dissuasive of maritime military forces in South America.

Brazil hasn't spelled out the source of the threat it faces, except to say it feels justified in building up its defenses to protect newly discovered offshore hydrocarbon resources.

About $2 billion of government spending has already been set aside for the naval expansion.

What remains unclear is if President-elect Dilma Rousseff agrees with Lula on the vast military spending while Brazil faces huge problems of poverty, narcotics abuse and urban violence.

Officials said Brazil's home-grown manufacturers will build the conventional submarines in two batches with the first batch of 15 new ones likely to include some vessels modeled after the French Scorpion class submersible. The Brazilian version is likely to be larger than the French vessel, officials said.

Brazil also plans to refurbish and recommission submersibles it commissioned earlier, including the Tupi class based on German technology and Tikuna class developed by the Brazilian navy.

Alongside the naval development program, Brazil has announced ambitious plans for uranium enrichment, a program the United States tried to control when it first started in the 1980s.

Brazil, active in nuclear research since the 1930s, conducted a covert nuclear weapons program under military dictatorship in response to Argentina's nuclear program, also run under military rule.

Early Brazilian initiatives led to a limited reprocessing capability, opposed by successive U.S. administrations, a missile program, a uranium mining and processing industry and fuel processing on facilities.

Defiant Brazil bought nuclear materials and equipment from West Germany in the 1980s. Brazil has two nuclear power plants in operation and one under construction.

The inclusion of nuclear powered submarines means Brazil will redouble its uranium enrichment effort. Officials are confident Brazil can produce up to 40 tons of enriched uranium a year.

The naval and nuclear developments are meant to run side by side as part of an overall defense strategy.

[vector7]

Brazil to build nuclear submarines which will dramatically alter balance of power in South America

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 11:14 AM on 18th July 2011

• Comments (63)

The Brazilian government has started work on a submarine programme which will include the construction of South America's first nuclear subs.

The move will boost Brazil's claim to be the strongest force in the region, and strengthen the country's military assertiveness.

This new-found power may harm Britain in the event of another flare-up over the Falklands, according to U.S. news agency Global Post, as Brazil thinks the islands should belong to Argentina.



Sub: Brazil plans to build its first nuclear submarine in the next few years

The defence plan was announced in 2008, and will eventually involve the construction of five new submarines. Each will cost around $565 million.

More...

• British student's body found in Amazon after jumping in 'despite not being able to swim'

The first, being built in collaboration with a French contractor, is due to come into service in 2016.

By the time the programme is complete, Brazil will have four extra conventional submarines as well as a nuclear-powered model. It would be only the seventh country in the world to build a nuclear sub.


'A necessity': Former president Lula says the country needs new subs to protect its oilfields

Former president Luiz Inacio 'Lula' da Silva, who commissioned the programme, described the submarines as 'a necessity'.

Government officials claim that the subs will be used to protect the country's offshore oil reserves, and the exploration platforms which are intended to expand those reserves.

However, Brazil is an outspoken advocate of Argentina's right to claim the Falkland Islands - or Las Malvinas, as they are known in South America.

Tensions over the islands have risen in recent years as oil has been discovered close to the shore, making the tiny outcrop not only crucial to Argentinian national pride but also financially lucrative.

If the disagreement develops into military action, as it did in 1982, Brazil's new submarines would significantly reinforce the position of Argentina's closest ally.