Posted on 02/02/2011 8:31:47 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Plans to procure a new advanced combat aircraft for the Brazilian Air Force (Forca Aerea Brasileira - FAB), originally launched in the late 1990s, are facing a new delay, sources in Sao Paulo have confirmed to Jane's.
The final decision on which platform will be chosen to fulfil the FAB's F-X2 competition for an initial batch of 36 fighters was supposed to have been made before President Luiz Inazio Lula da Silva left office at the end of 2010.
However, with Lula out of office his successor, President Dilma Rousseff, wants to place the approximately USD5 billion programme on hold to reassess the options. A shift in government emphasis from enhancing indigenous industrial capabilities to social investment, coupled with a need to reduce fiscal expenditure to control the inflation threatening the Brazilian economy, are playing to postpone the F-X2 programme to beyond 2012.
The number of new combat aircraft to be procured in a new bidding process could be reduced to only 18, sources have told Jane's.
(Excerpt) Read more at janes.com ...
What could possibly go wrong? /sarc
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