F-X2: Brazil Picks Saab’s JAS-39 Gripen-NG over Rafale, Super Hornet

Upgraded F-5EM

As Brazil started boosting its defense budgets in past years, its Navy and Army received funds to replace broken-down equipment, while new fighters will be a critical centerpiece of the Forca Aerea Brasileira’s efforts.

Boeing’s F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet, France’s Dassault’s Rafale, Saab’s JAS-39 Gripen NG were picked as finalists. But after repeated stalling, for years the question was whether Brazil would actually place an order, or fold up the competition like the ill-fated 2011 F-X process. At the end of 2013 Brazil unexpectedly picked the Swedish offer, though offsets, price, and lack of diplomatic baggage, all can explain the decision.

Starry Eyed: Elbit’s Hermes 900 MALE UAV

Hermes 900

Elbit Systems has enjoyed considerable domestic and export success with its Hermes 450, which sits at the smaller end of the MALE (Medium Altitude, Long Endurance) UAV spectrum. As UAVs proved themselves, Elbit wasn’t interested in ceding the market for larger and more capable MALE UAVs to the likes of IAI and General Atomics.

They invested company funds to create the larger Hermes 900, but those kinds of investments eventually need a buyer. In 2010, their home country of Israel stepped up, and became the anchor buyer for the “Kochav” (“Star”). They weren’t the last. A comparison with the popular Hermes 450 is instructive…

Rio 2016: Brazil Buys Saab’s RBS-70 Air Defense Missiles

RBS-70 w. night sight

Vladimir Putin liked the Winter Olympics so much, he decided his army needed its own event. Brazil isn’t eyeing its neighbors’ territories, so they’re more focused on defensive preparations as they prepare for soccer’s World Cup in 2014, and a 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. Air defense is part of standard security preparations, and Brazil’s array needed an update anyway. Early reports had Brazil looking to Russia, and that may still happen, but the 2014 World Cup will see Brazil deploy a new system from Sweden…

France’s Rafale Fighters: Looking for Love…

Dassault Rafale
(click for cutaway view)

Will Dassault’s fighter become a fashionably late fighter platform that builds on its parent company’s past successes – or just “the late Rafale”? It all began as a 1985 break-away from the multinational consortium that went on to create EADS’ Eurofighter. The French needed a lighter aircraft that was suitable for carrier use, and were reportedly unwilling to cede design authority over the project. As is so often true of French defense procurement policy, the choice came down to paying additional costs for full independence and exact needs, or losing key industrial capabilities by partnering or buying abroad. France has generally opted for expensive but independent defense choices, and the Rafale was no exception.

Those costs, and associated delays triggered by the end of the Cold War and reduced funding, proved to be very costly indeed. Unlike previous French fighters, which relied on exports to lower their costs and keep production lines humming, the Rafale has yet to secure a single export contract – in part because initial versions were hampered by impaired capabilities in key roles. The Rafale may, at last, be ready to be what its vendors say: a true omnirole aircraft, ready for prime time on the global export stage. The question is whether it’s too late. Rivals like EADS’ Eurofighter, Russia’s Su-27/30 family, and the American “teen series” of F-15/16/18 variants are all well established. Meanwhile, Saab’s versatile and cheaper JAS-39 Gripen remains a stubborn foe in key export competitions, and the multinational F-35 juggernaut is bearing down on it.

ASTROS 2020 MLRS: Brazil Moves to Revive Avibras

Saudi ASTROS-II

At the end of August 2011, Brazil’s Ministerio da Defesa announced the beginning of a BRL 1.09 billion (about $685 million) project to update Avibras’ ASTROS (Artillery SaTuration ROcket System) multiple rocket launcher system to the ASTROS 2020 configuration. It will also develop a GPS-guided short-range rocket, and an AV-TM300 missile option that gives the new system a 300 km strike range. That level of reach would stand out in the global market, as it would rival the USA’s MLRS(Multiple Launch Rocket System)/ATACMS(Army Tactical Missile System) combination.

The initial funding amounts belie the importance of this program, on 2 levels. One source of importance is industrial. The other is ASTROS 2020′s status as an indicator, pointing the way toward the future spread of advanced precision strike technologies.

Bribery Probe Into the Dominican Republic’s 8 Super Tucanos

EMB-314, FAD concept

Brazil’s EMB-314/ A-29 Super Tucano continues to be the aircraft of choice for Latin American air forces who want to conduct drug interdiction and counterinsurgency missions. Their modern trainer/ counterinsurgency concept is slowly replacing the brilliant but under-appreciated OA-37 Dragonfly in the region. The Dominican Republic became the latest example of that trend in 2009, but now American officials are pushing bribery allegations against Brazil’s Embraer.

Brazil Buys Naval Seahawks, Penguins

USN & Brazilian SH-3s
at TOPEX 1987

Brazil needs new anti-submarine helicopters to accompany its “AH-11″ Super Lynx models, and replace HS-1 Squadron’s aged SH-3A/B Sea Kings. HS-1 bases out of Sao Pedro da Adelia near Rio, and generally serves aboard Brazil’s sole aircraft carrier, NAe Sao Paulo (ex-Foch).

Brazil is standardizing on Eurocopter’s EC725 Cougar as its medium helicopter across all 3 services, but that model doesn’t have a naval/ anti-submarine variant. Brazil could have chosen a comparably-sized naval helicopter like the EH101 Merlin, or the forthcoming NH90 NFH. Instead, they opted for Sikorsky’s smaller S-70B/H-60 Seahawk. It’s in wide service around the globe, and offers commonalities with the Brazilian Army’s fleet of S-70/UH-60L Pave Hawk search and rescue aircraft. Now, the final pieces of Brazil’s contract and support structure are falling into place.

Rio 2016: Brazil Looks to Russia for Air Defense Systems

Pantsir-S1

Brazil needs to upgrade its ground-based air defenses, and has chosen Russian equipment to do so. Protecting the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro is very much on Brazil’s mind, and so is improving anti-aircraft defenses beyond the current stock of SA-18 Igla shoulder-fired missiles and Gepard mobile anti-aircraft guns. What they’re buying won’t give them anything close to a comprehensive IADS system, but it will upgrade their mobile and short-range options.

A-1M: Enhancing Brazil’s AMX Light Attack Fighters

AMX/A-1 light fighter

In the late 1980s, Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA (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 in Brazil. Which is why Brazil’s A-1A fleet needs upgrades, in order to remain effective.

LAS in, LAS out: Counter-Insurgency Planes for the USA and its Allies

Winner

The USA needs a plane that can provide effective precision close air support and JTAC training, and costs about $1,000 per flight hour to operate – instead of the $15,000+ they’re paying now to use advanced jet fighters at 10% of their capabilities. Countries on the front lines of the war’s battles needed a plane that small or new air forces can field within a reasonable time, and use effectively. If these 2 needs are filled by the same aircraft, everything becomes easier for US allies and commanders. One would think that this would have been obvious around October 2001, but it took until 2008 for this understanding to even gain momentum within the Pentagon. A series of intra-service, political, and legal fights have ensured that these capabilities won’t arrive before 2015 at the earliest, and won’t arrive for the USAF at all.

The USA has now issued 2 contracts related to this need. The first was killed by a lawsuit that the USAF didn’t think they could defend successfully. Since February 2013 they have a contract that they hope will stick. The 3 big questions are simple. Will the past be prologue for the new award? Will there be an Afghan government to begin taking delivery of their 20 planes much beyond 2014? And will another allied government soon need to use this umbrella contract for its own war?