Brazil to assemble French fighters for Latin market:FM

[tocqueville]

Source: AFP

AFP) – 4 hours ago

BRASILIA, Brazil — Brazil would assemble Rafale fighter jets under an imminent deal with France, and could sell them to other Latin American nations, Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said Monday.

His comments came after Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced in a joint statement that Brazil had started talks to acquire 36 Rafale combat aircraft in a deal worth billions of dollars.

"There is a decision to negotiate the purchase of the Rafales, which won't be a simple purchase because there will be (aircraft) construction in Brazil -- there will be a possibility for Brazil to sell these planes to Latin America," Amorim told reporters.

He explained that the Rafale's effective victory over two other aircraft in a race to equip Brazil's air force -- the F/A-18 Super Hornet made by US group Boeing and Sweden's Gripen NG, built by Saab -- hinged on France's pledge to share the technology that goes into the jet.

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Sarkozy, meanwhile, told a news conference that France plans to acquire a dozen KC-390 military cargo transport planes made by Brazil's Embraer to replace U.S.-made C-130s it now uses.
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Brazil already has agreed to buy five French Scorpene submarines, one of them with nuclear propulsion, and 50 Cougar helicopters for about $12 billion. All would be assembled in Brazil.

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