The Cost Of Doing Business
The BBC report, Saab wins $4.5bn Brazil fighter jet contract, is another part of the cost of NSA’s hoovering.
The Brazilian Air Force recommended the SAAB JAS 39 Gripen, based on the total cost of ownership, as well as their mission requirements. The President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, decided that the government should buy the Boeing F/A-18 to improve ties with the US.
Well, after she found out about the NSA spying on Brazil, President Rousseff decided the military was right in their assessment, and bought the SAAB aircraft.
Digby covers the NSA report by Zero’s ‘blue ribbon panel’, and is a bit surprised, as am I that it wasn’t a total whitewash of the problems.
The report notes that the bulk collection program has not been successful in stopping anything. What the spooks have cited as ‘wins’ could all have been accomplished with regular warrants targeting specific individuals or groups, instead of creating huge databases with information on almost everyone in the US.
The report is all swell and wonderful, but the proof will come if any effective changes are made to these programs, and that seems highly unlikely.
2 comments
The Super Hornet is actually a better plane for their mission than the Saab, the Saab is much cheaper and easier to maintain (though the Hornet is not bad for a two-engine aircraft) but was designed for European operations i.e., small, nimble, short range. Brazil’s vast spaces need something with more range than the Saab. The Super Hornet is a much larger fighter with significantly larger fuel capacity and range if carrying the same weapons load as the Saab. Still, it became clear that the Americans were not trustworthy, so what do you do? It was either the French or the Swedes, and the Saab is considerably cheaper to buy and maintain than a French fighter jet (which are nice jets but tend to be maintenance hogs).
So yeah, chalk it up to the NSA ruining yet more American exports. Sigh!
I’m fairly sure that the Brazilians are planning for more, smaller bases. The Swedish air defense forces fly out of caves along the coast using stretches of the coastal highway for runways. When I was flying in the Baltic the Drakkens would just show up in ones and twos to see what we were doing, and practice intercepts on us. They were a real PITA as they would come in very, very close.
I think the BAF probably uses Super Tucanos for their ground attack and close support missions, and the Gripens can be ordered with NATO-compliant refueling capability.
The Brazilians may have been suspicious of possible Boeing involvement in the hoovering, along with just being bent out of shape with the whole concept. We certainly aren’t making any friends with these games.