Enhancing Brazil’s AMX Light Attack Fighters
Jan 18, 2011 16:39 EST
(click to view full)
$250 million overhaul contract. (Jan 17/11)
In the late 1980s, Embraer and Aermacchi launched The AMX project, a joint Italian/Brazilian program to create a lead-in fighter trainer and light attack aircraft. The result was a capable jet, especially in the light attack role, which entered service with Brazil in 1990 as the A-1. Unfortunately for the AMX team, the Soviet empire’s fall took a lot of impetus out of the global combat jet market. Meanwhile, fierce competition from entrenched competitors like the Czech L-39 Albatross family, BAE’s Hawk family, and the Franco-German Alpha Jet ensured that AMX never took off in that shrunken export market.
Brazil’s FAB still uses the AMX as an important component of its air combat power, with about 43 A-1A fighters and 11 lead-in trainers in the fleet. Italy also uses the aircraft, but Brazil’s dearth of operational front-line fighters and larger land area make the AMX much more important to the FAB. Which is why Brazil’s A-1A fleet needs upgrades, in order to remain in their roles…
Contracts & Key Events
(click to view full)
Jan 17/11: Embraer and the Brazilian Air Force’s COMAER (Comando da Aeronautica) sign a $250 million contract to overhaul 43 AMX jet fighters, in order to prepare them for full modernization. The maiden flight of the modernized single-seat prototype is planned for early 2012, when the flight testing of the systems will begin. The first delivery is expected by the end of 2012, and the contract as a whole is expected to run for about 70 months.
This deal complements the previous contract to modernize AMX fighters, signed in 2003. This new agreement deals with a structural overhaul, and the repair and substitution of outdated equipment. The ope is that this will ensure a more efficient and steady flow for the fighters’ overall updating process, and shrink the turnaround time for the upgrade. Embraer | Defense News.
Nov 11/08: Elbit Systems Ltd. announces a $187 million contract from Brazil’s Embraer to upgrade the FAB fleet’s avionics and mission systems. The initial development and prototype phase for the AMX upgrade is valued at about $67 million; if approval is given at the end of this phase, the entire contract is scheduled to be completed through 2014.
Elbit’s wholly-owned Brazilian subsidiary Aeroeletronica S.A. (AEL) in Porto Alegre, Brazil will supply the central battle mission computer of the AMX, as well as display systems, the ammunition management system and additional systems. Elbit’s Israeli subsidiary, Elisra Electronic Systems Ltd., will supply the electronic warfare (EW) systems as a major subcontractor to AEL. AEL is already executing avionics systems upgrades under previous contracts for Brazil’s 46 modernized F-5EM fighters (2001, 2007), and original avionics and equipment orders for 99 EMB-314 Super Tucano observation and light attack turboprops (2002, 2007). Elbit Systems release [PDF] | FAB release re: the overall modernization program [in Portuguese].
Additional Readings
- Ha’aretz (Nov 10/09) – Elbit Systems hiring locals to win large Brazilian tenders
