Brazil
To Buy 36 Fighter Planes From
France
Brasilia -- Brazil is to
buy 36 ultra-modern Rafale fighter jets from
France, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula
da Sivla and his visiting French counterpart
Nicolas Sarkozy announced in a joint
communiqué on Monday.
The deal, with an estimated worth of 4 to 7
billion U.S. dollars, will support Brazil's
air force for the next 30 years, and supply
it with multi-role combat jets which are the
most advanced in Latin America.
The plane maker, French company Dassault,
will finalize the sale to Brazil in 2010,
while delivery will be made starting from
2013.
Along with the fighter jets, France is also
exporting the technology to Brazil. Only the
first six fighter jets will be made entirely
in France. The rest will be assembled in
Brazil.
The transfer of aviation technology is key
to the success of this deal, while Brazil's
negotiations with Sweden for the Gripen
plane, made by Saab, and with the United
States for Boeing's F18, failed.
"We are definitively consolidating a
strategic partnership we started in 2005,"
Lula said at a joint news conference with
Sarkozy in Brasilia.
The deal adds to the 10-billion-dollar bill
Brazil has already struck with France to buy
five submarines, with one to be converted to
nuclear power, and 50 military transport
helicopters.
In return, Sarkozy said France will buy some
10 Brazilian military transport aircraft
KC-390 to carry light military loads.
At the press conference, Lula and Sarkozy
said both countries wish to keep cooperation
in building and selling aeronautic military
equipment. |
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