A video has surfaced on YouTube showing a senior Brazilian officer expressing deep frustrations with the US government's technology transfer policies for military equipment. Complaints about the US government's technology transfer policies are widespread globally, but this video is remarkable for citing examples in such specific detail, including showing photocopies of US government denial letters.
The two-day-old clip is attributed to a lecture presented last December by Brigadier Engineer Venancio Alvarenga Gomes, the director of projects for Brazil's command-general for aerospace technology, in Sao Jose dos Campos, which also happens to be where Embraer's headquarters is located.
The video concludes with a graphic showing a red 'X' over a picture of a Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet, which is competing against the Dassault Rafale and the Saab Gripen for Brazil's F-X2 deal. According to Google's translator, the title of the slide says: "USA not technology transfer". It does not appear that the final slide was included in Gomes' presentation. It may have been added after that event by the YouTube poster.
Gomes presents a series of case studies to illustrate his frustrations of doing business with the US military. His examples include sudden policy changes by the US Department of State that revoked export licenses for two US-made systems -- Northrop Grumman's LN100G navigation system and a Honeywell navigation system -- that were already in production on Brazilian military aircraft.
"Sudden changes in policy of exporting is already generating uncertainty," Gomes writes on a slide, according to Google translator.
Gomes' presentation even included photocopied memos apparently by US Navy and Department of State officials, denying Brazilian requests for US-made components to upgrade a Brazilian missile called the Mectron MAA-1B Piranha 2.
An excerpt from one of the photocopied memos, signed by a US Navy official, is highlighted on Gomes' slide and says: "The use of two-color infrared detector arrays could potentially result in a significant upgrade of the Sidewinder missile seeker capability against decoys and countermeasures." Although the next sentence on the memo was not highlighted, it explained in English that Brazil had not described the MAA-1B development program in "sufficient detail" to allow the US Navy officials to perform a proper assessment.
If any of you know Portugese, please help translate the brigadier's remarks.
The two-day-old clip is attributed to a lecture presented last December by Brigadier Engineer Venancio Alvarenga Gomes, the director of projects for Brazil's command-general for aerospace technology, in Sao Jose dos Campos, which also happens to be where Embraer's headquarters is located.
The video concludes with a graphic showing a red 'X' over a picture of a Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet, which is competing against the Dassault Rafale and the Saab Gripen for Brazil's F-X2 deal. According to Google's translator, the title of the slide says: "USA not technology transfer". It does not appear that the final slide was included in Gomes' presentation. It may have been added after that event by the YouTube poster.
Gomes presents a series of case studies to illustrate his frustrations of doing business with the US military. His examples include sudden policy changes by the US Department of State that revoked export licenses for two US-made systems -- Northrop Grumman's LN100G navigation system and a Honeywell navigation system -- that were already in production on Brazilian military aircraft.
"Sudden changes in policy of exporting is already generating uncertainty," Gomes writes on a slide, according to Google translator.
Gomes' presentation even included photocopied memos apparently by US Navy and Department of State officials, denying Brazilian requests for US-made components to upgrade a Brazilian missile called the Mectron MAA-1B Piranha 2.
An excerpt from one of the photocopied memos, signed by a US Navy official, is highlighted on Gomes' slide and says: "The use of two-color infrared detector arrays could potentially result in a significant upgrade of the Sidewinder missile seeker capability against decoys and countermeasures." Although the next sentence on the memo was not highlighted, it explained in English that Brazil had not described the MAA-1B development program in "sufficient detail" to allow the US Navy officials to perform a proper assessment.
If any of you know Portugese, please help translate the brigadier's remarks.
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