Brazil said Wednesday it hopes to develop state-of-the-art combat aircraft with Russia, and buy surface-to-air missile batteries from Moscow.
Brasilia is already in talks with other countries to modernize its air force by purchasing 36 fighter jets worth as much as $5 billion.
US firm Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet is competing against the Rafale made by France’s Dassault and Saab of Sweden’s Gripen NG for the lucrative fourth-generation aircraft contract.
“We are very considering discussing projects in the case of fifth generation (combat) aircraft with new partners,” Defense Minister Celso Amorim told reporters after talks here along with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu.
“The issue was mentioned as a basis for discussion, however it is for the medium term.”
Amorim said he hoped the fourth-generation aircraft bidding process will be “finalized soon.”
But Boeing’s bid to win the contract appears to had been damaged by reports of in depth US spying on Brazil.
The allegations, in line with documents leaked by fugitive US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden, led President Dilma Rousseff to cancel a state visit to Washington, putting Boeing’s bid on hold, Boeing Brazil chief Donna Hrinak said last week.
“The postponement of the visit signifies that any progress in regards to the issue (aircraft contract) was also postponed,” Hrinak, a former US ambassador to Brazil, said during a seminar at the Brazilian economy.
Amorim’s talks with Shoigu also yielded progress in talks for Brasilia to obtain Russian surface-to-air missile batteries worth $1 billion, complete with technology transfer.
“It is a well-advanced project. We predict a Brazilian technical mission to visit Russia in a month or two and the contract need to be signed late next year,” Amorim said.
The Russian missile batteries would help boost security in the course of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Shoigu’s visit, following high-level talks in nearby Peru, comes as Moscow has raised its profile throughout Latin America lately with strengthened military and trade ties.
His stop in Brazil also coincides with Rousseff pressing for the discharge of a Brazilian biologist detained in Russia consisting of 29 other Greenpeace activists after protesting Arctic oil drilling.
Ana Paula Maciel was one in all 30 activists from 18 countries arrested by Russia in late September and charged with piracy after authorities said they’d found “narcotic substances” at the Dutch-flagged Arctic Sunrise, utilized in their protest.
Greenpeace has denied the allegation as a “smear,” and the arrests have triggered international protests.
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