Brazil (Probably) Buys Rafale

So, Dassault has finally gotten an export sale of its Rafale fighter, to Brazil. (Official announcement in Portuguese on a very poorly configured web server)

There were a number of things that helped with this:

• The Rafale had already taken off and landed on Brazil's aircraft carrier (see below).
• The French agreed to purchase the Embraer KC-390 transport, which the US wouldn't, and the Swedes couldn't.
• The France and Brazil are already collaborating on the Brazilian nuclear attack submarines, which, once again, which the US wouldn't, and the Swedes couldn't (or maybe they could, as the collaboration with the French is non-nuclear, and the Gotland class AIP boats would have a systems to a nuke boat).

This breaks the logjam for Rafale, but the customer, which has a significant aerospace industry with indigenous design capabilities and extensive existing ties, is fairly unique.

That being said, we also have this report (Google Translation from Portuguese) saying that the deal may not be completely nailed down yet.




H/t ELP Defens(c)e Blog for the tip/vid that the Rafale has already been launched from, and landed on the Foch, which was sold to the Brazilians and rechristened NAe São Paulo.