Brazilian Armed Forces

Brazilian Armed Forces Forças Armadas Brasileiras
Service branches	Brazilian Air Force Brazilian Army Brazilian Navy
Headquarters	Ministry of Defense
Leadership
Commander-in-Chief	President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Minister of Defense	Nelson Jobim
Manpower
Military age	18-45 years of age for compulsory military service
Conscription	Compulsory military service
Active personnel	369,742[1][2][3] (ranked 13th)
Reserve personnel	1,600,000 (2009)
Expenditures
Budget	USD $23.9 billion (2009)[4] (ranked 13th)
Percent of GDP	2.6% (2008)[5]
Industry
Domestic suppliers	Embraer Avibrás Helibrás IMBEL Mectron CBC
Related articles
History	Military history of Brazil
Ranks	Military ranks of Brazil

The Brazilian Armed Forces (Portuguese: Forças Armadas Brasileiras) comprise the Brazilian Army (including the Brazilian Army Aviation), the Brazilian Navy (including the Brazilian Marine Corps and Brazilian Naval Aviation) and the Brazilian Air Force.^[6]

Organization

The Armed Forces of Brazil are divided into 3 branches:^[7]

• Brazilian Army
• Brazilian Navy
• Brazilian Air Force

The Military Police (state police) is described as an ancillary force of the Army.^[7] All military branches are part of the Ministry of Defence.^[8]

The Brazilian Navy which is the oldest of the Brazilian Armed Forces, includes the Brazilian Marine Corps and the Brazilian Naval Aviation. Brazil has the most powerful military of South America, and so are each of its military branches.^[9]

Military history of Brazil

Since 1648 the Brazilian Armed Forces have been relied upon to fight in defense of Brazilian sovereignty and to suppress civil rebellions. The Brazilian military has also four times intervened militarily to overthrow the Brazilian government.^[10] It has built a tradition of participating in UN peacekeeping missions such as in Haiti and East Timor.^[11] Below a list of some of the historical events in which the Brazilian Armed Forces took part:

• First Battle of Guararapes (1648) - Decisive Brazilian victory that helped end Dutch occupation. Due to this battle, the year 1648 is considered as the year of the foundation of the Brazilian Army.^[12]

• Brazilian War of Independence (1822-1824) - Series of military campaigns that had as objective to cement Brazilian sovereignty and end Portuguese resistance.

• Platine War (1851-1852) - The Brazilian Empire and its allies went to war against the dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas of the Argentine Confederation.

• Uruguayan War (1864-1865) - Brazilian intervention in Uruguay. With support from Argentina, imperial forces deposed President Atanasio Aguirre from office and instated general Venancio Flores in his place.^[13]

• War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870) - Also known as the Paraguayan War. Over 200,000 Brazilians fought on this conflict,^[12] which is considered as the most serious in Brazilian history.^[14]

• War of Canudos (1893-1897) - The deadliest rebellion of Brazil, the insurrectionists defeated the first 3 military forces sent to quell the rebellion.^[12]

• Brazil during World War I - Brazil entered into World War I in 1917 alongside with the Triple Entente. Brazil's Effort in World War I occurred mainly in the Atlantic campaign, and a smaller participation in the land warfare.

• Brazil in World War II (1942-1945) - Brazil declared war on Nazi Germany in August 1942^[10] and in 1944 sent 23,300 soldiers to fight in Italy.^[15]

Brazilian military coup d'états

Although no military coups occurred during the 67 years of the Brazilian Empire, the Republican period experienced 4 military coup d'états in the 75 years between 1889 and 1964.

• Proclamation of the Republic (1889) - End of the Brazilian Empire, this was the first coup d'état performed by the Brazilian military.^[12]
• Revolution of 1930 - Second military overthrow of government,^[10] in which President Washington Luís was replaced by Getulio Vargas, who became the Provisional President.
• End of Estado Novo (1945) - Then Dictator Getulio Vargas is deposed by generals and later General Eurico Dutra was elected president.^[10]
• Brazilian 1964 coup d'état - President João Goulart is removed from office, leading to a military dictatorship which lasted until 1985.^[10]

Mission and challenges

South America is a relatively peaceful continent in which wars are a rare event;^[9] as a result, Brazil hasn't had its territory invaded since year 1865 during the War of the Triple Alliance.^[16] Additionally, Brazil has no territorial disputes with any of its neighbours^[17] and neither does it have bitter rivalries, like Chile and Bolivia have with each other.^[18][19] However, Brazil is the only country besides China and Russia that has land borders with 10 or more nations. Moreover, Brazil has 16,880 kilometers (10,488 miles) of land borders^[20] and 7,367 km (4,578 mi)^[21] of coastline to be patrolled and defended. Overall, the Armed Forces have to defend 8.5 million km² (around 3.2 million sq. mi.) of land and patrol 4.4 million km² (around 1.7 million sq. mi.)^[22] of territorial waters—or Blue Amazon, as the Brazilian Navy calls them.^[23] In order to achieve this mission properly, significant quantities of both man power and funding have to be made available.

Insufficient investments

Payments for personnel and pensions absorb most of the Defense budget, limiting the amount of investments in maintenance and new equipment.^[24] Between 2001 and 2007, just R$11.1 billion, roughly US$6.1 billion, were invested in the military.^[24] For 2008, USD $5.6 billion (out of a total Defense budget of USD $24.4 billion^[25]) are expected to be invested in new equipments.^[26]

Only 267 or 37% of the Air Force's aircraft are operational, lack of maintenance and spare parts have grounded 452 aircraft.^[27][28] Adding to this problem is the fact that 60% of the aircrafts are 20 years old or older.^[24]

The Navy is also facing difficulties. A 2007 report pointed out that not only the Navy had just 21 combat surface ships to patrol 7,367 km (4,578 mi)^[21] of coastline, but also only 10 of those ships were operational.^[24][29] Additionally, most operational ships are plagued with operating restrictions.^[30] Out of the Navy's 5 submarines, only one is fully operational, another two operate with restrictions, and 27 or 46% of the Navy's 58 helicopters are inoperable.^[24][29][30]

And the Brazilian Army is enduring challenges as well. Seventy-eight percent of all Army vehicles are 34 years or older and some trucks date back to World War II.^[24][31] General Enzo Martins Peri added the fact that most of the Army's artillery guns are also from World War II.^[24][31] Out of the Army's 1,437 armored vehicles, over 40% are not combat ready, and 40% or 2,670 of the Army's vehicles are not operational.^[24] General Augusto Heleno Ribeiro Pereira, then commander of the Amazonian Military Command stated that some weapons have been in use for more than 40 years.^[32] Lastly, the amount of ammunition stock is only 15% of what is recommended.^[24]

Extensive Modernization Program

Recently, Brazil has began to emerge as a major world power and a potential superpower; thus Brazil has begun to develop as a major military power. In 2008 the Brazilian minister of defense has formulated the “Estratégia Nacional de Defesa” (National defense Strategy), that claims to build a strong national industry and make strategic partnerships with allied nations to develop technology together.^[33].

In 2008, Brazil has signed a strategic partnership with France and Russia to trade military technology. Brazil has also begun negotiations with France to have Brazil build 120 Rafale aircraft locally by Embraer.^[34] Also in 2008 the Brazilian company Embraer showcased the Brazilian transport aircraft, Embraer KC-390, and some countries already have shown interest in the aircraft, with France even placing orders.^[35][36] In 2009 Brazil purchased 4 Scorpène submarines for US $9.9 billion with a massive technology transfer agreement. In a second agreemtn, France will provide technical assistance to Brazil so that Brazil can design and produce indigenous nuclear powered submarines, to be completely built in Brazil.^[37]

The Brazilian government has announced that a Helibras factory in Itajubá, Minas Gerais, will initially produce 50 units of the EC 725 and up to 1,300 new helicopters for the Brazilian military. Helibras will now also produce Eurocopter's full line of products, with the first units to be operational in 2010.^[38]

The Department of Defense of Brazil, in 2009 also asked the Brazilian Navy to develop a plan for the next 30 years. To carry out the plans of power projection that Brazil wants to run, the expenditure will cost more than $138 billion US dollars, within the Navy alone. The program is called PEAMB.^[39] The strategy is to buy or build 2 aircraft carriers (40 000 tonnes), 4 LHD (20 000 tonnes), 30 escort ships, 15 submarines, 5 nuclear submarines and 62 (patrol ships).^[40]

In July of 2009, the minister of defense, Nelson Jobim, said that Brazil will expend about 0.7% ($13 billion USD) of the GDP per year to modernize the forces in addition to the 2.6% yearly defense budget. He stated, "We are raising a study to make the financial schedule of the entire project. It will be a 20 year plan, including modernization and expansion of the elements for defense of the Brazilian territory.^[41]

Troop relocation

Brazilian Army presence in the border regions of the Amazon in 1999.

Brazil has the need to patrol its 16,880 kilometers (10,488 miles) of land borders.^[20] Since the 1990s Brazil has been relocating its forces in accordance to this national security requirement.

Between 1992 and 2008, the 1^st, 2^nd and 16^th Jungle Infantry Brigades,^[42][43] the 3^rd Infantry Battalion, the 19^th Logistics Battalion, and the 22^nd Army Police Platoon were transferred by the Army from the states of Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul to the Amazon region^[44]. After those redeployments the number of Army troops in that region rose to 25,000.^[32] Also relocated from the state of Rio de Janeiro were the 1^st and 3^rd Combat Cars Regiment, now stationed in the city of Santa Maria, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.^[44]

However, despite those efforts, the presence of the Armed Forces on the border regions of the Brazilian Amazon continues to be sparse and disperse, given the fact that the Army has just 28 border detachments in that area, a total of 1,600 soldiers, or 1 men for every 7 km (4.3 mi).) of borders.^[20] More redeployments are expected since the states of Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo still concentrate over 49,000 soldiers.^[44] On May 2008, the Navy announced new plans to reposition its forces throughout Brazil.^[44]

Service obligation and manpower

The age for voluntary service is 18–45 years, and an increasing percentage of the ranks are "long-service" volunteer professionals. Brazil's military manpower, as of a 2005 estimate, is 33 million males aged 19–49 and 38 million females aged 19–49 fit for military service.

Males in Brazil are required to enlist for serving 12 months of military service upon their 18th birthday.^{[citation needed]} However, most enlisted are dismissed and do not serve at all. Most often, the service is performed in military bases as close as possible to the person's home. There are several exemptions to compulsory service, including health reasons, tattoos (infection risk), height and weight etc.

Women were allowed to serve in the armed forces for the first time in the early 1980s, when the Brazilian Army became the first in South America to accept women into career ranks.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Brazil and weapons of mass destruction
• Policing in Brazil
• Military Police of Brazilian States
• BOPE: Special Police Operations Battalion of the Military Police of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• List of Wars involving Brazil
• Military of the Empire of Brazil

External links

• Brazilian Ministry of Defence
• Brazil military profile from the CIA World Factbook
• Brazil military guide from GlobalSecurity.org

References

v • d • e Militaries of South America Sovereign states Argentina · Bolivia · Brazil · Chile · Colombia · Ecuador · Guyana · Panama1 · Paraguay · Peru · Suriname · Trinidad and Tobago1 · Uruguay · Venezuela Dependencies Aruba1 / Netherlands Antilles1 (Netherlands) · Falkland Islands / South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (UK) 2 · French Guiana (France) 1 Territories also in or commonly considered to be part of North America and/or Central America.  2 Territories also in or commonly considered to be part of Antarctica.