Brazil discusses acquisition of Russian Pantsir-S1 air defense system

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The statements published by TASS were made by the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation Deputy Director Anatoly Punchuk. He stated that “for the time being, the issue of Brazil’s purchase of Pantsir is still on the table and discussions are ongoing.”

For his part, Rosoboronexport CEO Alexander Mikheev told TASS that he is “waiting for an invitation to participate in tenders for the supply of air defense systems of various ranges. We confirm that Russia is open to any forms of cooperation with the Brazilian side on this issue.”

However, despite statements by Russian State Agencies and officials, negotiations between the two countries for the Pantsir date back to 2013. In 2017, the Brazilian Ministry of Defense considered the acquisition of up to 12 Pantsir-S1 systems, based on MAN trucks manufactured by Rheinmetall, to equip up to three anti-aircraft artillery batteries.

To date, these intentions and negotiations have not materialized into contracts, while the Brazilian Ministry of Defense continues to assess candidates with which to strengthen its armed forces’ anti-aircraft capabilities.

This situation calls for special attention from the Brazilian Army, which will have to strengthen its anti-aircraft capabilities to tackle low and very low flying targets. Currently, the force has several man-portable air defense systems such as the older KBM 9K338 Igla-S and the more modern RBS-70 MK.2 and NG, acquired between 2014 and 2019.

Among tube artillery, the institution has 40-mm M985 Bofors L70 and 35-mm Oerlikon C90 Twin guns, which are gradually being decommissioned. Finally, these means are complemented by German Gepard 1A2 armored vehicles, which equip two Self-propelled Anti-Aircraft Batteries (Bia AAAe Ap).

The Pantsir-S1 is an air defense system of missiles and tube artillery designed to protect complex military, administrative and industrial installations against combat aircraft, helicopters, cruise missiles and precision guided weapons.

The system combines twelve 57E6 surface-to-air guided missiles and two 30-millimeter 2A38M automatic cannons, developed from the GSh-30 twin-barrel 30-mm cannon. It is capable of destroying air targets from 200 to 4,000 meters, at altitudes of 0 to 3,000m, with cannons and a range of 1,200 to 20,000 meters with missiles at 15 to 15,000m altitude.