Rapid Fire August 29, 2012: US-Brazil Defense Trade and Beyond
- The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) recommends [PDF] to grow US-Brazil defense trade through the promotion of corporate partnerships and easing technology transfer. The Institute for National Strategic Studies makes a similar assessment [PDF] and notes that Franco-Brazilian deals are underpinned by external financing. The Pentagon reached a similar conclusion in its talks with India: these big emerging countries want more than just trade out of defense deals.
- Brazil’s Embraer is leading the consortium which last week won the first phase of the SISFRON border security project. The firm is following the Boeing model with a separate defense company with its own CEO and is aiming to reach the $1B/year threshold this year.
“The problem with tying defense spending to economic performance is that GDP fluctuations don’t always line up with changes in threats or military requirements. If the economy is weak and threats are high, more spending might be justified. The opposite — a strong economy in relative peacetime — could also be true.”
- In the New York Times: military families are “planning for the worst” given the uncertainty of a possible sequestration.
- Though one retired general suggested naming China’s aircraft carrier after islands of disputed sovereignty between the Chinese and Japan, said carrier is not close to ready.
- China is possibly quickly ramping up production of a new 6,000-ton destroyer class dubbed Type 052D. This will be need to be confirmed beyond blurry pictures posted by bloggers. China is reportedly building Type 056 corvettes 4 at a time.
- Israel is introducing bulletproof grenades.
