Brazil Bidding for Fighters Planes ( Updated)

Brazil's air force has launched the process to buy at least 36 fighter jets as part of a broader plan to modernize after most of its neighbors overhauled their fleets, officials said on Thursday.

Brazil wants to buy and build equipment to defend offshore oil assets and a porous Amazon border threatened by armed drug-traffickers and foreign guerrillas.

In February, Colombia ordered 24 Kfir bomber jets from Israel, while Venezuela acquired 24 Russian Sukhoi jets and said last month it is considering buying more. Chile bought new Lockheed Martin F-16s and Peru decided to upgrade its jets.

Upon taking office in January 2003, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva scrapped plans to replace aging Mirage jets, saying he would use the money to feed the poor.

Now, the air force wants a multi-role fighter to replace its entire fleet of fighter jets over the next 15 years. That could increase the size of the order to more than 100 aircraft.

It chose six manufacturers to participate in the procurement process and last month requested information on their aircraft, the Air Force press department said.

The six selected models are Boeing's  F-18 Super Hornet, Lockheed Martin's  F-35 Lightning II, Dassault's  Rafale, Sukhoi's SU-35, Saab's Gripen and Eurofighter's Typhoon.

Brazil is seeking a generous technology transfer package, possibly including local assembly, to help develop its own aviation industry and perform maintenance of the aircraft.

"Technology transfer is not a problem. Eurofighter has a history of partnership with its clients," said Valerio Bonelli, spokesman for Alenia, a partner in the Eurofighter consortium.

Boeing and Lockheed said they also were willing to support local industry development.

"The F-35 was designed from the outset to be an exportable product and the program has broken a lot of ground in the technology transfer realm," said John Kent, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin.

But the U.S. government, which would buy the aircraft from Boeing or Lockheed and sell it to the Brazilian government, has the last word on technology transfer.

Brazil has been leading an effort to create a South American Defense Council to help coordinate arms purchases. Though many of its neighbors have recently renewed their fleets, some manufactures still see Latin America's largest economy as possible regional defense hub.

"Brazil is an emerging market and a potential export base for us," said Damian Hills, spokesman for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems.

Brazil is already negotiating a strategic defense alliance with France, including the construction of a nuclear-powered submarine in Brazil.

U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co. is looking into bidding on an estimated US$2.2 billion (€1.41 billion) contract to provide military planes to Brazil's air force, the company said Thursday.   Boeing's Integrated Defense Systems executive Joseph T. McAndrew spent three days in Brazil this week meeting with military officials and business and industrial leaders to ''get a better understanding of how Boeing can satisfy some of the future defense requirements of Brazil,'' company spokesman Damien Hills said.   McAndrew, who left Brazil on Wednesday, discussed Boeing's F/A-18 Hornet — a twin-engine, multi-mission tactical aircraft — as a potential candidate for the air force's plans to purchase 24 to 36 aircraft, Mills said.   Companies such as Russia's Sukhoi, Sweden's Saab and France's Dassault Aviation are also interested in bidding for the contract.   Brazil's has conditioned the contract to the sharing of the technology behind whatever aircraft it buys, and so far the only country that has said it would allow such a transfer has been France, which is interested in selling Dassault's Rafale fighter plane.   Boeing's Mills said he preferred to not discuss technology transfer issues because they are a ''government-to-government matter.''   The U.S. Embassy in Brasilia also declined to comment on the matter.

A FAB quer um caça multifuncional para substituir toda sua frota nos próximos 15 anos e, para isso, já lançou um processo para adquirir ao menos 36 aeronaves, segundo a assessoria de imprensa da Força Aérea.

O plano de troca de toda a frota pode elevar o número de pedidos para 100 aeronaves.

Os seis modelos escolhidos pela FAB para participarem do processo F-X2, e sobre os quais a Aeronáutica já pediu informações aos respectivos fabricantes, são o F-18 Super Hornet, da Boeing ; F-35 Lightning II, da Lockheed Martin; o Rafale, da Dassult ; o SU-35, da Sukhoi, o Gripen, da Saab ; e o Typhoon, da Eurofighter.