The Brazilian Navy commissioned the first submarine built in the country

Naval Brazil commissioned this Thursday screamthe first of five submarines being built in the country under a military cooperation agreement with France and providing for the development of a nuclear submarine.

screamThe 71-meter ship, capable of accommodating 35 crew members for 70 days at sea, has been officially handed over nautical and automatically included in the country’s navy at the ceremony Submarine base Ilha da Madeiraat the Itaguai Naval Complex, a base on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.

The submarine was launched in December 2018 while it was in the testing phase and it will start operating with the Navy 5 years behind the original schedule. Submarine development program (Prosub) from Brazil.

The Riachuelo, or S-40 as it was known to the Navy, has a hull diameter of 6.2 meters, a surface displacement of 1,740 tons, which reaches 1,900 tons fully submerged, and also dives to a depth of 300 meters. .

The ship has six weapon launchers, as well as advanced sensors, including a significant array of sonar and periscopes with night vision cameras.

El Riachuelo was built in a shipyard assembled in-house naval complex Itaguai, in which Brazil builds four conventional submarines modeled after french scorpion.

So far, the Navy has launched Stream and Humaitaand it intends to launch Tonelero (2024) and Angostura (2025) in the coming years.

The forecast is that the entire project will be completed in 2034, when the nuclear submarine will be launched and Brazil becomes part of an exclusive group that dominates submarine nuclear propulsion technology, of which only China, USA, France, England and Russia, five permanent members of the UN Security Council United Nations.

Excellent investment

Submarine construction is the result of a transfer contract technology and military cooperation 6.7 billion euros (about 6.663 million dollars at today’s rate), which Brazil signed in 2009 with the French state-controlled shipyards DCNS.

Prosub’s goal is to protect the so-called “Blue Amazon”, as the navy calls the nearly 4.5 million square kilometers of Brazilian sea waters, which are rich in biodiversity and vast reserves of minerals and oil.

With Riachuelo, Marina Brazil It now has six operational submarines, the same number as Peru, the South American country with the largest fleet, although its models are older.

Prosub “is of strategic importance to the country. In addition to improving the operational capabilities of the Navy with a significant increase in its deterrent power, the program enriches our naval industry and the development of new technologies,” Brazilian Defense Minister Paulo Sergio Nogueira de Oliveira said at the Riachuelo award ceremony.

After the military presentation, the submarine can be seen by the Brazilians in front of the Copacabana beach on September 7, when it will take part in the naval parade, which nautical will be held in honor of the 200th anniversary of Independence Brazil.

Brazilian president, far-right leader will take part in the parade Jair Bolsonarowho touted the national date as a strategy for her campaign for the October 2 presidential election.

(As reported by EFE)