Ukrainian military personnel led by Colonel General Serhii Drozdov, commander of the country’s air force, were in Brazil last week to meet Embraer’s Super Tucano attack aircraft, the website Infodefensa reported. Also according to the publication, a test pilot from Ukraine tested a Brazilian Air Force aircraft on Wing 5 in Campo Grande.
The group also met with executives from Embraer Defense & Security in Sao Paulo, where they discussed the opportunity for the Ukrainian air force to acquire the Super Tucano.
Additional information, such as the number of aircraft intended by the Ukrainians, was not disclosed. In contact with Airway, Embraer clarified that it does not comment on business possibilities.
Prior to that, Drozdov with Ukrainian ambassador to Brazil Rostyslav Tronenko and Ukrainian defense attaché Colonel Oleksandr Mykhailenko met in late July with FAB commander Lieutenant Brigadier Antonio Carlos Moretti Bermudez in Brasilia to an institutional visit.
At these meetings, Ukrainian military personnel received guidance on how the pilot preparation system and maintenance of the Super Tucano work.
In June last year, during a military affairs conference in London, Simon Johns, Embraer Defense & Security vice president of sales in Europe and North Africa, revealed that the manufacturer was looking for its first European customer for the Super Tucano and suggested Ukraine as one of the candidates.
At the time, the Embraer executive said Ukraine’s difficulty in obtaining credit to buy new military aircraft and helicopters could lead the country’s air force to select the Super Tucano, a low-cost, affordable operating fighter plane.
In addition to Brazil, Embraer’s advanced attack and training aircraft are also in service in 12 other countries, a number that will be expanded in the coming years with the delivery of aircraft to the air forces of Nigeria and the Philippines. If Ukraine buys the aircraft, it will be the first former Soviet republic to fly the Super Tucano.
