Alexandre Rocha*
Gavião Peixoto (São Paulo) – Yesterday (18) Embraer officially delivered the first ALX Super Tucano to the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), in an event at the company factory located in Gavião Peixoto, a small 4,000-inhabitant city near Araraquara, in the interior of São Paulo state.
The contract between Embraer and FAB forecasts the delivery of 76 airplanes over the next four years, in a deal totaling around US$ 460 million, informed company president Maurício Botelho. "The total is around that," he said. The military, which have already received A-29 airplanes, may purchase another 23 units in future.
Despite the purchase volume, and the fact that the airplane was developed considering FAB specifications and the Brazilian reality, Botelho believes that the airplane may easily be used in other countries, and sees the foreign market as a greater potential than that provided by the Brazilian armed forces. "The FAB contract is interesting and I believe the export option involves even greater values," declared the Embraer president at a press conference after the event.
The Super Tucano is an airplane destined to pilot training, light attack, and "familiarization with armaments". It started being developed in 1995, and is derived from the former Tucano, but it is more powerful and technologically more advanced.
Equipped with a 1,600hp turboprop, the plane is available in one- and two-seater versions, and, informs the company, uses latest generation electronic components similar to those used in supersonic fighters F-5BR, currently being modernized by Embraer, at FAB request, which should be installed in future remodeling of the fleet of AMX jets the Air Force possesses. This, according to Botelho, will permit pilots to operate all three airplanes without great need for adaptation.
Sivam
"It was designed to reach average velocities, but uses electronic mission systems that are a great advance, making the aircraft of great interest to FAB", stated Botelho. Although first officially took place yesterday, the FAB is already testing the airplane and has even created a unit especially for Super Tucano operation. Baptized Alfa Squadron, the team is made up of 10 pilots and 20 mechanics under the command of lieutenant colonel Fábio Lannes.
"I have flown it, and it is a good plane which uses latest generation air technology and which also has the capacity to carry latest generation weaponry," says Lannes. He added that ground training of the pilots has already begun; in January the air training phase will start in São José dos Campos; in February the plane will start being operated in Natal (Rio Grande do Norte state, in the Northeast) and, later on in Boa Vista (Rorraima) and Porto Velho (Rondonia), both in northern states, and Campo Grande (Mato Grosso do Sul), in the Center-west. The idea is to use Super Tucanos in the System for the Vigilance of the Amazon (Sivam) in the near future.
According to Botelho, the airplane is ideal for guerilla combat activities and frontier control. To him, using a supersonic jet for this kind of operation is too expensive, as well as providing dubious efficiency as these planes develop high speeds.
Although the event marked official delivery of the airplane to FAB, the presentation flight was executed by an Embraer test pilot, Oliveira Lima, a retired air force colonel with long gray hair tied in a ponytail. Accompanied by engineer Alexandre Olive, he made two low level flights near the main Gavião Peixoto factory hangar, one at low speed, and the other at high speed.
Window to the foreign markets
In the point of view of the Embraer president, FAB use of the Super Tucano will be a window for potential international buyers. "It is not possible to sell abroad if the airplane is not being used by the local air force," he said, then qualifying the company as an "industrial and technological arm" of FAB. He said, however, that the company is going to supply Mexico with a sea patrol aircraft that is not yet being used by the Brazilian Air Force.
Botelho sees good business potential with countries in Latin America, Europe, and Asia, as well as the Middle East. "There are certainly possibilities in the Middle East," he stated. At the beginning of the month Embraer participated in the Dubai Air Show 2003. The company president did not, though, want to discuss the fair results. "There is nothing specific to comment on."
Botelho spoke a little, albeit, about some of the countries with which Embraer hopes to do business in the defense sector, such as Mexico and Greece, to which he hopes to sell vigilance aircraft of the 145 family; India, a market where, according to him, the company is already operating; and even the United States, where Embraer established a joint venture with Lockheed Martin and other companies, which may result in the construction of a factory in Jacksonville, Florida, for production of modified versions of the 145 family.
Botelho pointed, nevertheless, that confirmation of this last deal will depend on supply contracts the consortium manages to win.
Target
According to Botelho, the defense aircraft division answers to between 10% and 12% of Embraer revenue. He wants to increase this percentage to 20% by 2007. "This is a daring plan and includes many markets around the world," he stated. Up to the third quarter of 2003, Embraer had net revenues of US$ 1.296 billion.
Still, the executive pointed out that Embraer does not intend to compete on all sectors of defense aviation, but in some niches, such as vigilance, training, and light attack aircraft.
Tender
Still in the defense sector, Botelho denied that Embraer is considering the termination, of their joint venture with French company Dassault in favor of a partnership with Russian Sukhoi for participation in a FAB tender for the purchase of new supersonic jets.
"Embraer is not going to join a program that will be a failure," he said, pointing out that company agreement with the French is firm. According to Botelho, the Russian Su-35 Super Flanker is only a prototype. "If Brazil makes this option, it will be buying 12 prototypes, not 12 airplanes," he declared.
The model offered by Embraer/Dassault is the Mirage 200BR. Botelho stated that if the proposal wins the tender, the jets should be built in Gavião Peixoto, and there will be total French technology transfer.
Commercial jets
Botelho added that the production of military airplanes is essential for the development of commercial airplanes. He goes on to explain that if Embraer had not developed the AMX fighter plane together with the Italians in the 1980s, the company would currently not have the technological capacity they use in their commercial jets.
Embraer is betting heavily on growth in demand for regional jets for between 30 and 120 passengers, as those in the ERJ 145 and Embraer 170 families. The company hopes to deliver the first 170 airplanes, with capacities for between 70 and 78 people, to Alitália by February 2004. The airplane is still awaiting definite certification by local air authorities.
On the other hand, the first ERJ 145 produced in China, through a joint venture between Embraer and China Aviation II, had its maiden flight this week. Botelho believes that China will have a demand for 300 regional planes over the next 10 years.
*The reporter traveled at Embraer invitation
