With an ageing fighter fleet, Brazil is in urgent need of a new combat aircraft. This much-delayed acquisition for the Brazilian Air Force is managed under the F-X2 programme, with the Dassault Rafale, Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and the Saab Gripen NG still in the running, with many expecting a decision soon. THE ORIGINS OF the current F-X2 programme, which aims to renew the Forca Aerea Brasileira (Brazilian Air Force, FAB) fighter fleet, date back to July 2000 and the launch of the Programa de Fortalecimento de Controle do Espago Aereo Brasileiro (Programme for the Improvement of Brazilian Airspace Control), an evolution of Plan Phoenix that had been established four years earlier (see 'Orions of Orungan', Combat Aircraft August 2011 for further details). Of the programme's $3.5-billion total value, up to $700 million was allocated for the acquisition of between 12 and 24 examples of a fighter capable of replacing the Dassault Milage IIIDBR/EBR flown by 1° Grupo de Defesa Aerea (1st Air Defence Group) since 1972, this being the unit charged with the defence of Brazils capital, Brasilia. The selected aircraft would need to be inducted into the FAB inventory by December 2005. when the last of the Mirages were to be retired from active service.
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