Bids for Brazil's long-delayed F-X BR fighter procurement expired without a government decision at the end of 2004, nominally requiring a new round of updated submissions.
Amid renewed rumours that the programme will be indefinitely shelved, Brazil's new defence minister Jos‚ Alenca says a decision will be announced before the retirement of the air force's Dassault Mirage IIIEBR fleet in December.
The Brazilian air force early last year completed its final evaluation of the Dassault Mirage 2000-5 Mk 2, Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 50/52+, RSKMiG MiG-29SMT, Saab/BAESystems JAS39C Gripen and Sukhoi Su-35, submitting the results to Brazil's ministry of defence. The service is believed to have favoured the Gripen and Su-35 bids on technical grounds, although the political preference appears to be for the French Mirage, on offer with local manufacturer Embraer. Some of the bidders - including a partnership between Russia's Rosoboron export arms agency and Brazil's Avibras - are understood to have resubmitted the same offers.
The continued delay is expected to further strain Brazil's air defence capabilities, which will rely solely on 43 single-seat Northrop F-5Es after the Mirage's deactivation. Undergoing extensive modernisation and overhaul work under the F-5BR programme - along with three two-seat F-5Fs - 11 airframes are being held by Embraer, which should hand over the first upgraded airframe next month, followed by two aircraft a month.
Brazil's air defence shortfall has also prompted renewed lease proposals from contenders such as Denel Aerospace and Varig Engineering & Maintenance, which have respectively offered ex-South African air force Atlas Cheetahs and non-mid-life update-standard F-16A/Bs.
Source: Flight International
