The Navy will receive this Friday (24) the first frigate built in Brazil since 1980. The entry into operation of the F200 Tamandaré is the culmination of another chapter in the turbulent military procurement process in the country, and coincides with a new perspective for the Force.
THE war in Iran and the impact of closing the Strait of Hormuz highlighted the need to protect maritime routes — in the Brazilian case, agribusiness depends on a handful of ports for its exports.
As a result, last Tuesday (21) the president Lula (PT) announced, in Germany, that the order for four frigates of the Tamandaré class from the German shipyard Thyssenkrupp will be doubled. It’s still far from the estimated 12 to 16 units the Navy would like to have, but it’s a potential shift.
“This international scenario reinforces the need for countries with great dependence on maritime trade, such as Brazil, to have adequate naval capabilities”, said the Deputy Chief of Strategy of the General Staff of the Navy, Admiral Sandro Baptista Monteiro. THE analysis was published this month by the Marine News Agency.
The Force is experiencing an accelerated process of degradation, symbolized by the withdrawal of its ships from missions abroad — there are only six frigates in the main combat vessel category of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and they are obsolete and almost always unavailable.
The remainder of the fleet includes 45 coastal or patrol ships, another 42 support ships, 2 amphibious landing ships, among others.
| Spending on the project (R$ billion) | Authorized | Accomplished |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 1.1 | 0 |
| 2020 | 2 | 0.1 |
| 2021 | 1.8 | 1.2 |
| 2022 | 2.7 | 2.6 |
| 2023 | 3.3 | 1.8 |
| 2024 | 2.4 | 1.5 |
| 2025 | 2.5 | 2.4 |
| Source: Siga Brasil, values corrected by IPCA |
In addition to the issue of routes, there are riches: in addition to the so-called Blue Amazon, the 5.7 million km² of sea already under its responsibility, Brazil pleads with the UN new areas with potential for exploring the desired rare earths.
Lula’s announcement now faces the reality of an election year and the military’s budget execution, which relies on the project sanctioned last year that foresees expenditure of up to R$5 billion annually outside the fiscal target with priority projects — in the case of Tamandaré.
Added to the fiscal gambiarra is the structural problem of Brazilian military spending, which sees around 80% of funds allocated to paying active and inactive personnel.
In the case of the frigate, progress did not experience major delays, contrary to what occurred in programs such as the Gripen fighter, otherwise more complex.
The project was launched in 2017 and two years later Thyssenkrupp, together with Embraer and other national companies, won the bid. The contract was signed in 2020 and, for now, the delay in ship deliveries is just one year — the last one should enter into operation in 2029.
The project was made possible by a fiscal maneuver during the Michel Temer (MDB) government, which capitalized Emgepron, the Navy’s naval design company, and removed restrictions from the old spending ceiling. The Union Court of Auditors he even challenged the dribblebut he went ahead.
The expense occurred in a sobbing wayeven though Lula included the project in the New Growth Acceleration Program.
According to the Senate’s federal spending monitoring system, of the R$15.8 billion authorized from 2019 to 2025, in corrected values, only 60.7% were actually used. But the pace is improving: in 2025, R$2.4 billion of the R$2.5 billion on hand was spent.
From a technological point of view, Tamandaré is a leap in time in relation to the class it will replace, Niterói.
The frigate União, which entered the fleet in 1980, had been the last ship of its kind made in the country. After that, there were smaller models, corvettes, the most recent of which, the Barroso, entered the Force in 2008 after 14 years since the beginning of its construction.
The F200 began production in 2022, went to sea two years later and is now ready for use. It displaces 3,455 tons, a little less than the Niterói class ships, but features much more technology — it has modern combat management, data exchange and electronic warfare systems.
Can launch missiles like the new Brazilian model Mansupwhose project was purchased by the Emirati group Edge, and the traditional French Exocet. It has a 76mm main gun and can carry a helicopter on its flight deck.
She is still a lighter and less powerful combat ship than destroyers, the mainstay of the American naval force, for example. But they represent, alongside the four submarines of French origin Now in the final phase of construction, the arrival of the Navy into the 21st century.
Força celebrates the technological transfer to Embraer and its subsidiary Atech, but also the promotion of around a thousand small and medium-sized suppliers. The nationalization of the German project reaches 40%, according to the military.
There are estimated gains of R$500 million in taxes paid, in addition to the creation of 23 thousand jobs, 2,000 of them direct, until the end of the current contract, in 2029. The announcement of the second wave of frigates, if confirmed, also eliminates for now the specter of deactivation of the shipyard in Itajaí (SC)where ships are made.
As is usual in military affairs, nothing is guaranteed despite the adverse geopolitical reality in times of donald trump. This includes an inevitable fragility of the Tamandaré project and others: most of their sensitive technologies are foreign, subject to embargoes.
Gustavo Patu collaborated
