A Swedish manufacturer Saab's Gripen F fighter jet flies on October 11, 2012 during a flight demonstration of the Swiss Air Force over Axalp in the Bernese Oberland.
Brazil has picked the Swedish aerospace company Saab to replace its aging fleet of fighter jets, after U.S. spying reportedly upset American-headquartered Boeing’s chances of winning the coveted deal.
Defense Minister Celso Amorim said that the decision “took into account performance, the effective transfer of technology and costs,” but an anonymous government source told Reuters that “the NSA problem ruined it for the Americans.”
In November, the U.S. technology firm Cisco Systems complained that the American spying had decreased demand for its products in China.
The Brazilian fighter jet contract, worth $4.5 billion, has been negotiated over the course of three presidencies. France’s Dassault Aviation had also been in the running.
[Reuters]