This squadron will be the first step of the renewal of the Brazilian navy aviation and should be followes by the acquisition of a 60,000 t. aircraft carrier due to enter service between 2027 and 2031.
Source : DefesaNet (Google translation)
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As explained in this article, the French ship builder DCSN is already promoting one of its PA2 designs for this project. The only serious contender to the French ship would be the British CVF whose second unit, the prince of Wales, could be sold by the MoD to Brazil
Anyway the fact that the 24 navy fighters will be of the same type as their Air Force counterparts, probably weaken the Saab offer due to the fact that the Gripen-N is still on the drawing board, leaving Dassault and Boeing alone for the final round of FX-2.
Meanwhile Luiz Marinho, the Mayor of San Bernado and a key personality for the Tranfer of technology part of the FX-2 project, is visiting the Dassault and Thales facilities in France (after a trip in Sweden last November).
Also read
FX-2 : Dassault settles transfer of.technology
Not to forget that Brasil currently operates the aircraft-carrier "São Paulo", the previously French "Foch" on which the first Rafale Ms conducted their first tests.
ReplyDeleteIf there is a problem, there won't be a compatibility problem :-)
One of the main reasons Foch was retired early by the Marine Nationale was that it had problems operating the Rafale at any kind of respectable payload. Sao Paulo would need a pretty substantial refit to operate them including widening the flight deck beam and changing the angled deck orientation slightly, replacing 60m BS5 with 75m C13-3s, and chaining location of the forward elevator. The year or two it took to do this, Brazil would have no carriers.
ReplyDeleteSeaGripen would take longer in development, but would be able to operate with no restrictions on Sao Paulo without any major modifications to the ship. Its of similar size and weight of the skyhawks, SuEs, and Crusaders that she's operated. It would also allow Brazil to order a smaller and cheaper ship in 15 years, possibly as a joint project with the Spanish and Italians if the F-35B is cancelled.