The Commander of the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), Lieutenant Brigadier Marcelo Kanitz Damasceno, participated earlier this month in a public hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in which he revealed the countries that are in negotiations to acquire the KC-390 Millennium airlifter from Embraer.
Some of the nations mentioned in the public hearing had already declared on previous occasions that they are evaluating the KC-390, cases of Austria, India, Sweden, South Korea and the Czech Republic, which is a strategic partner of Embraer’s program.
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The new potential customers of the aircraft disclosed at the time are South Africa, Egypt and Rwanda, countries with which the manufacturer has “very advanced talks”, as stated by the Air Force Commander.
In addition to being ordered by the FAB, which is also participating in its development, the KC-390 also has firm orders from Portugal (five units) and Hungary (two units). Another country that selected the Embraer military plane was the Netherlands, which should confirm the purchase of five aircraft by the end of this year.
In all these cases, the Millennium was chosen to replace Lockheed Martin’s aging fleet of C-130 Hercules turboprops.
“With this aircraft acceptance curve in the world, we will certainly have more sales than those we are already having”, commented Lieutenant-Brigadier Damasceno, adding that “very soon we will have new announcements of large sales” of the KC- 390.
KC-390 delivery schedule for Brazil
Another revealing piece of information disclosed at the hearing was the updated delivery schedule of the KC-390 to the FAB, which should extend until 2034. The Air Force, which received the first aircraft in 2019, ordered 19 multirole jets (out of a total of 28 originally agreed) .
According to Commander Damasceno, the Air Force currently has six aircraft of the type in service – the delivery of the sixth aircraft, the first with the FOC configuration, has not yet been made official by Embraer.
The remaining aircraft will be delivered to the FAB at the rate of one unit per year until 2033. In 2034, the delivery of the final two aircraft is scheduled.
