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Brazil interested in purchasing air defense missile systems from Russia

Russia has completed the delivery of Igla-S shoulder-fired air defense missile systems to Brazil
Pantsir-S1 missile systems Vitaly Nevar/TASS
Pantsir-S1 missile systems
© Vitaly Nevar/TASS

RIO DE JANEIRO, April 4. /TASS/. Brazil is still interested in the purchase of Russia’s air defense missile and artillery systems Pantsir-S1, the deputy chief of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, Anatoly Punchuk, has told TASS.

"The latest talks with the Brazilian delegation on this subject took place at the international military-technical forum Army-2016. The Brazilian partners say this theme remains on their agenda. We do hope for a positive outcome," said Punchuk, who leads Russia’s delegation at the international arms show LAAD-2017.

"The Brazilian military has repeatedly visited the system’s manufacturer and saw Pantsir-S1 in action at Russian firing range. Foreign specialists were able to see for themselves the effectiveness of Russia’s system. All targets were hit at the maximum distance," Punchuk said.

According to earlier reports, Brazil’s Defense Ministry had plans for acquiring 12 Pantsir-S1 systems installed on a chassis provided by Germany’s Rheinmetall to create three batteries. In the meantime, the European company MBDA declared plans to pool efforts with Brazil’s Avibras to develop a medium range air defense system AV-MMA, the Pantsir-S1’s likely rival. Brazil has conducted talks on acquiring Russia’s air defense systems since 2013. Originally, the signing of the contract was scheduled for 2015. In May 2016 the then head of Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation Aleksandr Fomin said that Russia was prepared to deliver Pantsir systems to Brazil but the contract had not been signed yet due to internal problems in that country.

Pantsir-S1 is capable of hitting air, surface and naval targets at altitudes of up to 15 kilometers. The effective range of its artillery component is four kilometers. The rate of fire of the 30 mm anti-aircraft gun is 5,000 rounds per minute.

Igla-S shoulder-fired air defense missile system

Russia has completed the delivery of Igla-S shoulder-fired air defense missile systems to Brazil, Deputy Director of the Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation Anatoly Punchuk told TASS on Tuesday.

Punchuk is heading the Russian delegation at the LAAD-2017 defense and security exhibition in Brazil.

"The 2015 contract for the delivery of Igla-S MANPADS has been implemented in full," Punchuk said.

This is not the first delivery of these systems to Brazil, he noted.

"Brazilian partners highly appreciate the operational characteristics of Russian-made air defense systems," Punchuk said.

The Igla-S man-portable air defense missile system is designed to hit low-flying air targets in oncoming and catch-up flight paths amid false thermal interference. The Russian Army is being currently rearmed with Verba new-generation MANPADS.

LAAD-2017 arms show

The international Latin American exhibition of aviation and defense systems LAAD-2017 will held in Rio de Janeiro on April 4-7.

The Russian exposition will feature selections provided by 23 organizations, including 11 manufacturers of military products. On display there will be models of advanced samples of military hardware, including a combat and training plane Yakovlev-130, helicopter gunship Mi-28NE, helicopter Ka-226T, light multi-role helicopter Ansat, air defense missile system Tor-M2KM, corvette of project 20382 Tigr, patrol boat of project 12200 Sobol and other defense industry products.