Brazil and US reaffirm contract for space products and systems – PRISMA

The Brazilian Air Force (FAB) and the National Airworthiness Council (NAC) are a United States (US) agency that brings together military airworthiness technical authorities from the United States Air Force, United States Navy, and United States Army (Air Force). , Navy and Army). Accordingly, the USA has signed the Airworthiness Commission (AAM) Reassessment of Accreditation Certificates, which reviews, certifies, manufactures and maintains the continued airworthiness of avionics products and systems for mutual verification. Responsibility of both countries.

The Brazilian document was released on July 17, 2022, and was signed by Air Force Commander Lt. Brigadier Air Carlos de Almeida Baptista Jr.; and by the Director General of the Aerospace Science and Technology Department (TCDA), Air Lieutenant-Brigadier Mauricio Augusto Silveira de Medeiros. The US certificate was presented on February 22, 2022 by Captain Taro Keith Robison of the US Army.

Rough work with NAC began in 2015, and included technical-administrative documentation and analysis of technical visits. In 2016, a team from the Instituto de Fomento e Coordination Industrial (IFI) visited the organization and held meetings with its members, in order to start the process of mutual recognition of activities between the two countries.

The following year, it was the turn of NAC members to visit the IFI facilities in São José dos Campos (SP). At that time, the Instituto de Fomento e Coordination Industrial found that the FAB had the necessary processes, procedures, expertise, skills, and authority to be recognized by the US government as a military airworthiness authority.

As a result of the visits, FAB and NAC signed the first certificates of recognition of AAM in 2018, starting bilateral cooperation in the field. Since then, activities carried out by the Air Force Command (COMAER) and the North American Institute have been mutually recognized. As the regulations and activities related to this accreditation are reviewed every four years by the two national authorities, in the interval where the certificate is renewed, the FAB and the NAC have recently undertaken a bilateral re-evaluation process aimed at renewing the agreement, or not.

According to Colonel Aviator Luis Marcelo Tertulino de Brito, director of the IFI, the re-evaluation demonstrates the quality of the certification carried out by the FAB, which helps the Brazilian space and defense industry to be more inclusive in the world, especially in North America. market. “And, like the Brazilian A-29 Super Tucano, it facilitates the exchange of information regarding mutually operated products that guarantee the performance, safety and availability of aircraft operated by both countries,” he pointed out.