Brazil’s deal for Israeli howitzers ‘frozen’ over Gaza war

SANTIAGO, Chile — Five months after the Brazilian Army announced its decision to buy howitzers from Israel’s Elbit Systems, the project remains suspended over Brazilian President Inazio “Lula” da Silva’s criticism of Israel’s actions against Hamas in Gaza.

According to military sources in Brasilia, who spoke to Defense News on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, the project remains “frozen” but not formally canceled.

“President da Silva has signed no executive order, neither to cancel the procurement of ATMOS 2000 nor for reopening the tender to select and negotiate another solution”, one source said.

The government in May picked Elbit to deliver 36 ATMOS 2000 self-propelled howitzers in a deal worth $210 million.

The sources said that both the Minister of Defense, Mr. José Múcio Monteiro, as well as the Army chief, Gen. Tomás Miguel Ribeiro Paiva, are working to unlock the project. They hope to persuade the left-wing president to proceed with the deal, which would provide two howitzer samples for testing.

Military officials believe picking another vendor would increase the delay and have a negative impact on several local companies, which have signed agreements with Elbit to participate in the production of parts and the final assembly of the weapons.

Officials at Brazil’s Ministry of Defense and the Army did not return a request for comment.

The decision to procure ATMOS 2000 capped a tender process for the service’s VBCOAP program, short for armored self-propelled howitzer in Portuguese. The other vendors competing under the tender were France’s KNDS with the Caesar, an alliance between Slovak Konštrukta Defense and the Czech Excalibur with Zuzana 2, and China’s NORINCO with the SH-15.

Meanwhile, tensions between Colombia’s government and Israel, also fueled by the Gaza war, have had no effect so far on an order for 18 Atmos 2000 worth $102 million, placed early in 2023 by the South American country.

José Higuera is a Latin America correspondent for Defense News.

智利圣地亚哥——巴西陆军宣布决定从以色列埃尔比特系统公司购买榴弹炮五个月后，由于巴西总统伊纳齐奥·“卢拉”·达席尔瓦批评以色列在加沙对哈马斯采取的行动，该项目仍然处于暂停状态。

据巴西利亚军方消息人士透露，该项目仍处于“冻结”状态，但尚未正式取消。这些消息人士在匿名接受《防务新闻》采访时谈到了内部讨论。

一位消息人士称：“达席尔瓦总统没有签署任何行政命令，既没有取消采购 ATMOS 2000，也没有重新招标以选择和协商其他解决方案。”

今年 5 月，政府选择 Elbit 公司交付 36 门 ATMOS 2000 自行榴弹炮，合同价值 2.1 亿美元。

消息人士称，国防部长何塞·穆西奥·蒙泰罗和陆军总司令托马斯·米格尔·里贝罗·帕伊瓦将军都在努力促成该项目。他们希望说服这位左翼总统推进这项交易，该交易将提供两门榴弹炮样品用于测试。

军方官员认为，选择其他供应商会加剧延误，并对几家与埃尔比特公司签署协议参与武器零部件生产和最终组装的当地公司产生负面影响。

巴西国防部和陆军官员没有回复置评请求。

采购ATMOS 2000的决定标志着该军种VBCOAP项目（葡萄牙语意为“装甲自行榴弹炮”）招标流程的结束。参与竞标的其他供应商包括：法国KNDS公司（其方案为“凯撒”）、斯洛伐克Konštrukta Defense公司与捷克Excalibur公司组成的联盟（其方案为“祖扎纳2”）以及中国北方工业公司（其方案为SH-15）。

与此同时，哥伦比亚政府与以色列之间的紧张关系，也因加沙战争而加剧，但迄今为止，尚未对这个南美国家在 2023 年初订购的 18 台价值 1.02 亿美元的 Atmos 2000 系统产生任何影响。

何塞·伊格拉是《防务新闻》拉丁美洲记者。