Slovakia, Brazil discuss military transport aircraft, howitzer buys

WARSAW, Poland — Slovakia and Brazil have signed a memorandum under which Bratislava could buy four Embraer C-390 Millennium transport aircraft for the country’s armed forces. Meanwhile, the Slovak government is pitching to the Brazilian Ministry of Defense the acquisition of Zuzana 2 self-propelled howitzers, according to Slovakia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Robert Kaliňák.

Kaliňák made the announcement on Dec. 11 during the Slovak government’s official visit to Brazil during which he discussed the potential procurements with his counterpart, José Múcio.

“I think that both the Brazilian and Slovak industrial bases can offer a huge amount of experience, what we are strong in, what we are good at,” Kaliňák said, as quoted by state-run news agency TASR.

He added that Brazilian officials had also shown an interest in Slovakia’s know-how in the field of ammunition production.

In May 2024, Brazil decided to buy 36 ATMOS 2000 self-propelled howitzers from Israel’s Elbit Systems. However, the procurement remains suspended over Brazilian President Inazio “Lula” da Silva’s criticism of the Israeli government’s actions against Hamas in Gaza.

The 155mm Zuzana 2 howitzer is manufactured by Slovak company Konštrukta Defence, and it is based on a four-axle Tatra wheeled chassis.

While the C-390′s basic model is priced at some €80 million ($84 million), other countries which have ordered the planes paid up to €220 million per unit, depending on the selected version and its equipment, Kaliňák said.

In September 2023, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Defence decided to buy four C-390s to replace its aging fleet of three C-130 Hercules cargo planes. The ministry said in a statement the purchase was estimated to be worth more than €500 million.

In October 2024, the Czech Ministry of Defence signed a deal to buy two C-390s, making Prague the fifth NATO member state to order the Brazilian plane for its air force. Other nations which have selected the C-390 for their militaries include Brazil, Hungary, the Netherlands, Portugal, and South Korea.

Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Poland correspondent for Defense News.

波兰华沙——斯洛伐克和巴西签署了一份备忘录，根据该备忘录，布拉迪斯拉发可以为斯洛伐克武装部队购买四架巴西航空工业公司（Embraer）的C-390“千禧年”运输机。与此同时，据斯洛伐克副总理兼国防部长罗伯特·卡利尼亚克透露，斯洛伐克政府正在向巴西国防部推销“祖扎纳2”型自行榴弹炮。

卡利尼亚克于 12 月 11 日在斯洛伐克政府对巴西进行正式访问期间宣布了这一消息，期间他与巴西对口官员若泽·穆西奥讨论了潜在的采购事宜。

据国营通讯社TASR报道，卡利尼亚克表示：“我认为巴西和斯洛伐克的工业基础都能提供大量的经验，这是我们的优势所在，也是我们擅长的领域。”

他还补充说，巴西官员也对斯洛伐克在弹药生产领域的技术表现出了兴趣。

2024年5月，巴西决定从以色列埃尔比特系统公司购买36门ATMOS 2000型自行榴弹炮。然而，由于巴西总统伊纳齐奥·卢拉·达席尔瓦批评以色列政府在加沙地带对哈马斯采取的行动，这笔采购至今仍处于暂停状态。

155毫米Zuzana 2榴弹炮由斯洛伐克Konštrukta Defence公司制造，它基于四轴Tatra轮式底盘。

卡利纳克表示，虽然 C-390 的基本型号售价约为 8000 万欧元（8400 万美元），但其他订购该型飞机的国家，根据所选型号及其设备的不同，每架飞机的售价高达 2.2 亿欧元。

2023年9月，奥地利联邦国防部决定购买四架C-390运输机，以替换其老旧的三架C-130“大力神”运输机。该部在一份声明中表示，此次采购预计价值超过5亿欧元。

2024年10月，捷克国防部签署协议，购买两架C-390运输机，使布拉格成为第五个订购巴西C-390飞机的北约成员国。其他选择C-390作为其军队装备的国家包括巴西、匈牙利、荷兰、葡萄牙和韩国。

Jaroslaw Adamowski 是《防务新闻》驻波兰记者。