Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Brazil Begins Evaluating Competing Fighter Bids / F-X2: Technical Visits And Evaluation Flights

Brazil Begins Evaluating Competing Fighter Bids / F-X2: Technical Visits And Evaluation Flights
(NSI News Source Info) April 1, 2009: The Air Force Command, further to the selection schedule for the Brazilian Air Force’s new multi-purpose combat aircraft, has today March 30 begun the technical visits and evaluation flights of the aircraft competing for the F-X2 program.
In October 2008, it was reported that the Brazilian Air Force had selected three finalists in their F-X2 program. They are Dassault Rafale, Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and Gripen NG, and the number of aircraft involved are said to be anywhere between 36 and 120. The decision should be made early 2009. On 2 February 2009, Saab submitted a tender for 36 Gripen NGs to the Brazilian Air Force Command.
These are intended to verify technical, operational, logistic and industrial aspects of the bids.
To fulfill these objectives and to obtain additional details about the offers submitted by the bidding companies (listed here in sequence alphabetical) Boeing (F-18 E/F Super Hornet), Dassault (Rafale) and SAAB (Gripen NG), they will be visited and evaluated as to their industrial and logistic installations, maintenance workshops, laboratories for the development of systems, and operational squadrons. In addition, the competing aircraft will be flown and tested by pilots and engineers of the evaluation commission.
During month of March, the F-X2 Project Management Group (GPF-X2) met and prepared a new series of questions and clarifications for the three participating companies, so as to resolve outstanding issues and to improve the content of the various offers with regard to the requirements of the Air Force Command.
During this process, the Project Management Group maintained its focus on the aspects of the competing bids as regards commercial, technical, operational, logistic, offset-related, technological and technology-transfer issues.

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