The Brazilian Air Force has taken on the role of supporting the sale of C-390 Millennium jets to India. To this end, the service has put the HAL Tejas among the alternatives to be the second or third fighter in the coming years.
In a meeting with the Chief of the General Staff of India, General Upendra Dwivedi, the Commander of the Brazilian Air Force, Brigadier Marcelo Kantiz Damasceno, discussed several issues such as drones and satellites, but also a possible swap between the C-390 and the Tejas fighter, according to the country’s media.
Damasceno is part of a delegation that is in India following military exercises and also talking to companies and governments in the country to seek possible industrial collaborations.
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The head of the Brazilian Air Force told Times Now that “the Tejas is one of the options for our second or third fighter plane”.
Rule of two or three different fighters
Currently, Brazil is receiving Saab Gripen E/F fighters from an order of 36 aircraft, which replaced a dozen Mirage 2000s that were retired a few years ago.
The Air Force, however, has already expressed its desire to acquire more fighters and have a second type in its fleet, as has been the tradition.
“According to our rules, we should have no less than two and no more than three kinds of fighter aircraft”, explained Brigadier Damasceno, noting that the F-5 fighters that are in service will be decommissioned by 2030.
Months ago, the Brazilian government acknowledged that it had started talks with the United States to acquire second-hand F-16 fighters, but since then there has been no further developments on the matter.
The exchange of aircraft with other producing countries is not a new strategy for the Brazilian Air Force, which has proposed something similar to Sweden, which is evaluating both the C-390 Millennium and the C-130J Super Hercules for the acquisition of six aircraft.
The Tejas is a fighter developed locally by the state-owned Hindustal Aeronautical Limited (HAL). The supersonic aircraft is operated only by the Indian Air Force, despite several attempts to export it, such as to Argentina.
