Brazil denies Dassault Rafale deal

Posted by Mc Parry on February 5th, 2010 No Comments Printer-Friendly

BRASILIA- Brazil’s government denied Thursday it had made a final decision to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France after a news report said the planes’ maker, Dassault, had lopped two billion dollars off their price.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva “still has not decided on the selection process,” the state news agency Agencia Brasil said, adding that he was waiting on an official recommendation from the defense ministry that also had to go to a national defense committee.

Defense Minister Nelson Jobim told reporters: “The purchase has not been defined. The procedure is underway in the defense ministry. The report is unfounded.”

A French Dassault Rafale fighter aircraft conducts touch and go landings aboard the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) during a coalition training exercise, July 19, 2009. ( Rafael Figueroa Medina/ U.S. Navy )

Brazil’s air force also has not received any official notification that a choice had been made between the Rafale and its two rivals in the tender, the Gripen NG from Sweden’s Saab and the F/A-18 Super Hornet from US group Boeing, the agency said.

They were reacting to a report in the leading daily Folha de S. Paulo which said Lula and Defense Minister Nelson Jobim had signed off on the Rafales after Dassault’s hefty price cut.

It said the total Rafale deal was worth 10.2 billion dollars, comprising 6.2 billion dollars for the fighters themselves — down from a previous 8.2 billion — and four billion for maintenance over the next three decades.

The discount still made the Rafale more expensive than its rivals, it said, putting the Boeing package at 7.6 billion dollars (including 5.7 billion dollars for the F/A-18s themselves) and the Saab offer at 6.0 billion (with the Gripen planes accounting for 4.5 billion dollars).

The French jet also reportedly scored behind the two other contenders in a technical evaluation carried out by the air force, which lobbied hard for the Gripen both with the government and in Brazil’s media.

The price cut was decided last Saturday, when Jobim passed through Paris on his way back from Israel, the Folha de S. Paulo said without giving a source for any of its information.

A Dassault spokesman in Paris said: “We have no comment to make on the article in the Folha de S. Paulo. At this time, the Brazilian government has not announced its choice. We are awaiting this announcement calmly and confidently.”

If the sale does go through, though, it would be a big relief to both Dassault and to French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Dassault is keen to win the Brazilian tender because it has so far failed to make a single overseas sale of the Rafale. It hopes supplying Brazil’s air force would boost its chances with other countries, for instance India.

Sarkozy, meanwhile, has a lot personal prestige tied up in the deal. In September 2009, he and Lula jointly announced that Brazil had started negotiations to buy the 36 Rafales even though the tender process had not been closed.

Under pressure from the air force and the two rival manufacturers, Brazil’s government stepped away from that pledge and said the competition remained open — but that the final decision would be a political and strategic one by Lula.

Lula’s preference for the Rafale has been evident.

Not only would Brazil get access to all the technology involved in the sophisticated jet under the deal, but Brazil and France already have a strategic alliance which has seen Brasilia spend 12 billion dollars buying French helicopters and submarines. (AFP)