Investment plans for Brazil's defence

Brazil will further strengthen its defence by assigning funds for various acquisition programmes, notably the F-39E (Saab JAS39NG) Gripen fighter aircraft and investing in transport aircraft, aerial refuelling aircraft an small and medium helicopters.

The acquisitions fall under the so called 'Novo PAC' Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento) growth acceleration programme with a total budget of USD 10,8 billion (52,8 billion Reais) over the next years, more than 50% of that has been assigned to the programmes for the 2023-2026 timeframe. These acquisitions also includes ships and tanks.

The guidelines of the Novo PAC programme consists among others of equipping the Armed Forces with state-of-the-art technology, increasing national defence capacity and border monitoring. The various projects supported by the programme will invest in research and development, support deforestation command and control actions, generate jobs and encourage neo-industrialization, through the development of the Productive Chain and National Technology or the so-called Defense Industrial Complex.

The Projects involving aircraft for that the first period in Novo PAC are the followoing:

Project F-39, acquisition of 34 F-39E Gripens (local media report these as 'extra' on top of the 40 already ordered, but Scramble Magazine thinks this is only the budget for the 34 that were not delivered yet when Novo PAC was launched)
Project KC-390, acquisition of 9 KC-390, with 9 already delivered and 18 planned
Project KC-X, acquisition of 2 aerial refuelling aircraft (two A330 'KC-X3' on order)
Project HX-BR, acquisition of 5 medium transport helicopters (these are the last 5 H225M to be delivered)
Project TH-X, acquisition of 27 light helicopters (twelve H125 are already on order as part of this project)
Project Army Aviation, modernisation of 6 HM-1 Pantera helicopters, acquisition of 10 general purpose helicopters and 9 unmanned aerial systems

Other projects that may be involved after 2026 could be the replacement of the T-25 Universal and the T-27 Tucano training aircraft, and light transports to replace the C-95 Bandeirante.

Photo by RafaSpotter (via jetphotos.com)