The Brazilian Air Force (FAB) and Embraer reached a new agreement to reduce the initial order of 28 KC-390 airlifters. After cutting the order to 22 aircraft, the current Air Force Command has managed to eliminate three more Millennium jets.
As a result, Embraer will deliver only 19 KC-390s, nine less than planned by previous administrations. The terms of the new contractual amendment, however, establish that the possibility of “unilateral reductions under the law” will no longer exist.
“The execution of the amendments successfully concludes the negotiations between the parties regarding the Agreements. The amendments to the Agreements preserve the Company’s cash flow, ensure the economic and financial viability of the KC-390 Millennium project and do not alter and do not compromise the Company’s guidance for the year 2022,” says the material fact signed by Embraer’s Executive Vice President of Finance, Antonio Carlos Garcia.
Also according to the statement, Embraer will distribute the delivery of the remaining units over the same period of the original schedule of 28 aircraft.
The development of the KC-390 was a request from the Brazilian Air Force to Embraer as a replacement for the C-130 Hercules turboprops. The agreement followed the example of previous partnerships that gave rise to aircraft produced in Brazil and which also achieved success abroad, such as the EMB-110 Bandeirante and the EMB-312 Tucano and EMB-314 Super Tucano training aircraft, among others.
Focus on fighters jets
The federal government and the Brazilian manufacturer signed two contracts in 2014, the first that made the Air Force a partner in the project, and the second that involved the order of 28 KC-390s.
The situation began to change last year when the current Air Force Commander, Brigadeiro Baptista Junior, took over after the resignation of the military leadership during a crisis.
Since then, the new commander has focused on increasing spending on Saab Gripen fighters and the purchase of Airbus A330-200 aircraft to be converted to the MRTT standard. At the same time, Baptista Junior, citing budget constraints, ended projects such as a hybrid plane, in addition to trying to reduce the order of KC-390 by half.
With the new reduction in orders, Millennium now has 31 aircraft on order. There are 19 orders from Brazil, five from Portugal, five from the Netherlands and two from Hungary.
