Brazil will purchase the decommissioned Foch (at right) from the French, renaming her Sao Paulo. She will be handed over in November, and will sail for Brazil in April of 2001. Her air group of 30 aircraft will include 23 A-4MB, as well as SH-3 Sea Kings, Super Pumas, and S-2 Trackers. She may also acquire an AEW aircraft based on the SH-3. Sao Paulo will replace Minas Gerais, their nearly 50-year-old carrier, although she may be converted to a helicopter carrier or sold to another country, possibly Argentina. The carrier purchase signals more than just modernization of her navy. Brazil recently canceled the purchase of two German improved Type 209 subs and instead will design and build her own boat. This more expensive and difficult process shows that Brazil wants to strengthen not just her naval forces, but her naval capability. It won't be easy. Construction of the new sub is sched-uled to start in 2003, and it is planned to enter service in 2010. Brazil has been refitting Venezuelan and Argentinian submarines for some time and obviously feels that she is ready for the next step. Ultimately, she wants to build her own nuclear submarines, and in February 2000 committed $70M for uranium-enriching facilities, a nuclear reactor, and preliminary design for a SSN. Brazilian civilian nuclear technology is well advanced. At one time she had a program to develop nuclear weapons, which was abandoned in 1990. www.warships1.com/Brazilian_carriers.htm will probably be the best page to follow developments in the Brazilian carrier force. Zumwalt The DD-21 destroyer has been named the Zumwalt class. In addition to being stealthy, the navy is loading her with new concepts, including a radically reduced crew size (approxi-mately 95 men and women), electric propulsion and of course advanced weapons systems. Thirty-two are planned, with the first ship entering service no earlier than 2010. She will displace 10-12,000 tons. The Program office for both the Zumwalt and AGS programs is at dd21.crane.navy.mil/. The Aegis baseline 6.3 is not ready for prime-time so the new Burke Flight IIA destroyers already con-structed are going to be using 6.1 until 6.3 is ready. This means CIWS will have to be put back on and used until the software can support the use of Evolved Sea Sparrow from the Mk41 vertical launchers. This condition will take a couple of years to work itself out. The ships are being constructed faster than the software is being completed. Normal government operation. Most SH-60Bs are now capable of firing the Army Hellfire. This is in the fleet now in advance of the upgrade in the new SH-60R. FLIR-equipped aircraft are fitted with a special left-hand extended hardpoint, so they can still carry two fuel tanks. The US Navy retired the last SH-3H Sea King ASW squadron at the beginning of this year. The two reserve squadrons of SH-2G Sea Sprite will be decommissioned in March 2001. Four SH-2Gs are being passed to Poland for use on their ex-US O.H. Perry frigates. BT Back to The Naval Sitrep #19 Table of Contents Back to Naval Sitrep List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Larry Bond and Clash of Arms. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com