Brazil signed contracts worth $12 billion to purchase five submarines and 50 EC-725 military transport helicopters from France, the current issue of Defense News magazine reported. The submarine deal involves the purchase of four conventionally-powered Scorpene attack submarines and the construction of a nuclear-powered submarine to be built with French cooperation, the magazine said. A French official traveling with President Nicolas Sarkozy in Brazil last month said the contracts were $9.4 billion for the submarines and $2.6 billion for the helicopters, the article said. According to the magazine, the contracts involve significant transfers of technology—a priority for Brazil, which wants to develop an advanced defense industry—and make firm a strategic partnership deal signed by Sarkozy and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Brazil has said it would use the Scorpene submarines to patrol its territorial waters, which have recently yielded discoveries of massive oil fields. Under terms of the deal, the helicopters are to be assembled in Brazil in the southeastern Minas Gerais state at a facility owned by the Brazilian company Helibras, in which Eurocopter owns a 45 percent stake.
