QUOTE(GrodanBoll @ Dec 20 2004, 08:00 )
är det någon som vet hur det går med Brasiliens upphandling av nya kärror?
Än så länge dröjer beslutet!
På
DefenseNews.com kunde man för en vecka sedan läsa bl a följande (utdrag ur artikeln):
Brazil’s F-X Fighter Program Remains in Limbo The competition to supply a new fighter aircraft to the Brazilian Air Force may be just weeks away from collapse, according to a senior executive at Embraer, the country’s leading aerospace and defense company here.
Latin America’s largest Air Force badly needs new combat aircraft to replace aging Dassault Mirage IIIs that are due to be scrapped next year.
A decision on a winner of the service’s $700 million F-X program, for an initial 12 fighters, has been delayed several times during the last two years.
Several factors have stalled the program’s progress, most notably a change of government in 2002 that saw the Workers Party of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva come to power.
Embraer is offering a derivative of the Dassault Aviation Mirage 2000-5, with Gripen International offering the JAS 39 Gripen, Lockheed Martin the F-16 and Sukhoi the Su-35.
Now, says Anastacio Katsanos, Embraer’s senior manager of defense market strategy, if a winner is not selected by the end of the year, the competition in its current form could be dead.
“The best and final offers on F-X have already been extended twice, and they expire again at the end of December. If there is not a further extension, the program as it stands would be effectively canceled,” he said Dec. 8.
But Erik Hjelm, Gripen International’s vice president in Brazil, said it could be a little longer before F-X’s future is clearer. “The government has let defense bids lapse before, sometimes up to eight months, and then resurrected negotiations based on the original bid,” he said.
Media reports late last month quoted Jose Alencar, Brazil’s recently appointed defense minister and vice president, as saying a decision could be up to four years away.
Hjelm said Dec. 10 that Gripen International can afford to wait out a long delay, but he’s not sure whether Embraer can with the Mirage 2000-5.
“In four years’ time, Gripen will still be a new-generation fighter. That’s not the case for the Mirage,” he said.
Katsanos said that an interim solution might be to acquire more F-5 fighters on the international market to fill the gap between the Mirage IIIs going out of service and the F-X becoming available. The company hasn’t made any proposals along those lines yet to the government, but it would be a natural conclusion if it were requested, he said.
The industry source in Brazil said that if the Air Force realizes there isn’t going to be an F-X decision in the next two years, it will start pushing for the interim solution.
Hjelm said that Gripen is planning to respond with an offer if the Brazilians opt for an interim solution.
A Lockheed Martin spokesman said, “Whether it’s an interim or permanent solution, we are willing to support the Brazilian government.”