Brazilian Armed Forces

Brazilian Armed Forces Forças Armadas Brasileiras
Service branches	Brazilian Air Force Brazilian Army Brazilian Navy
Leadership
Commander-in-Chief	President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Minister of Defense	Nelson Jobim
Military age	1945 years of age for compulsory military service
Conscription	Compulsory military service
Active personnel	312,000[1] ranked 13th
Reserve personnel	1,115,000 (2006)
Expenditures
Budget	USD $24,4 billion (2008)[2] (ranked 11th)
Percent of GDP	2.6% (2008)[3]
Industry
Domestic suppliers	Embraer Avibrás Mectron
Related articles
History	Military history of Brazil
Ranks	Military ranks of Brazil

The Brazilian Armed Forces (Portuguese: Forças Armadas Brasileiras) comprise the Brazilian Army, the Brazilian Navy (including the Brazilian Marine Corps and Brazilian Naval Aviation) and the Brazilian Air Force.^[4]

Organization

The Armed Forces of Brazil are divided into 3 branches:^[5]

• Brazilian Army
• Brazilian Navy
• Brazilian Air Force

The Military Police (State's Military Police) is described as an ancillary force of the Army.^[5]All military branches are part of the Ministry of Defence.^[6]

The Brazilian Navy which is the oldest of the Brazilian Armed forces, includes the Brazilian Marine Corps and the Brazilian Naval Aviation. Brazil has the most powerful military in South America and so is each of its military branches.^[7]

Military history of Brazil

Main article: Military history of Brazil

Since 1648 the Brazilian Armed Forces have been relied upon to fight in defense of Brazilian sovereignty and to suppress civil rebellions. The Brazilian military has also four times intervened militarily to overthrow the Brazilian government.^[1] It has built a tradition of participating in UN peacekeeping missions such as in Haiti and East Timor.^[8] Below a list of some of the historical events in which the Brazilian Armed Forces took part:

• First Battle of Guararapes (1648) - Decisive Brazilian victory that helped end Dutch occupation. Due to this battle, the year 1648 is considered as the year of the foundation of the Brazilian Army.^[9]

• War of the Farrapos (1835-1845) - Longest Brazilian civil war.^[10] Under the leadership of the then Barão de Caxias, the war ended after negotiations.^[11]

• War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870) - Over 200,000 Brazilians fought on this war^[12], which is considered as the most serious conflict in Brazilian history.^[13]

• War of Canudos (1893-1897) - The deadliest civil war of Brazil, the insurrectionists defeated the first 3 military forces sent to quell the rebellion.^[14]

• Brazil in World War II (1942-1945) - Brazil declared war on Nazi Germany in August 1942^[1] and in 1944 sent 23,300 soldiers to fight in Italy.^[15]

Brazilian military coup d'états

Although no military coups occurred during the 67 years of the Brazilian Empire, the Republican period experienced 4 military coup d'états in the 75 years between 1889 and 1964.

• Proclamation of the Republic (1889) - End of the Brazilian Empire, this was first coup d'état performed by the Brazilian military.^[16]
• Revolution of 1930 - Second military overthrow of government^[1], President Washington Luís was replaced by Getulio Vargas, who became Provisional President.
• End of Estado Novo (1945) - The then Dictator Getulio Vargas is deposed by generals, who instated General Eurico Dutra as president.^[1]
• Brazilian 1964 coup d'état - President João Goulart is removed from office, a military dictatorship which lasted until 1985 is installed.^[1]

Mission and challenges

South America is a relatively peaceful continent in which wars are a rare event^[7] as a result Brazil hasn't had its territory invaded since the year 1865 during the War of the Triple Alliance ^[17]. Additionally Brazil has no territorial disputes with any of its neighbours^[18] and neither does it have bitter rivalries, like Chile and Bolivia have with each other.^[19][20] However, Brazil is the only country besides China and Russia that has land borders with 10 or more nations, moreover, Brazil has 16,880 kilometers (10,488 miles) of land borders^[21] and 7,367 km (4,577 miles)^[22] of coastline to be patrolled and defended. In all the Armed Forces have to defend 8.5 million km² (around 3.2 million sq. mi.) of land and patrol 4.4 million km² (around 1.7 million sq. mi.)^[23] of territorial waters or Blue Amazon as the Navy calls it.^[24] In order to achieve this mission properly significant quantities of both man power and funding have to be made available.

Insufficient investments

Payments for personnel and pensions absorb most of the Defense budget, limiting the amount of investments in maintenance and new equipment.^[25] Between 2001 and 2007 just R$11.1 billion, roughly US$6.1 billion, were invested in the military. ^[25] For 2008, USD $5.6 billion (of a total Defense budget of USD $24.4 billion^[2]) are expected to be invested in new equipments. ^[26]

Only 267 or 37% of the Air Force's aircraft are operational, lack of maintenance and spare parts have grounded 452 aircraft.^[27][28] Compounding this problem is the fact that 60% of the aircrafts are 20 years old or older. ^[25]

The Navy is also facing difficulties. A 2007 report pointed out that not only the Navy had just 21 combat surface ships to patrol 7,367 km (4,577 miles)^[29] of coastline but also only 10 of those ships were operational.^[25][30] Additionally, most operational ships are plagued with operating restrictions.^[31] Of the Navy's 5 submarines, only one is fully operational, two others operate with restrictions and 27 or 46% of the Navy's 58 helicopters are inoperable.^[25][32][33]

The Army is also facing challenges, 78% of all Army vehicles are 34 years or older and some trucks date from World War II.^[25][34] General Enzo Martins Peri added the fact that most of the Army's artillery guns are also from World War II.^[25][35] Of the Army's 1,437 armored vehicles over 40% are not combat ready and 40% or 2,670 of the Army's vehicles are not operational.^[25] General Augusto Heleno Ribeiro Pereira, then commander of the Amazonian Military Command stated that some weapons have been in use for more than 40 years.^[36] Lastly, the amount of ammunition stock is only 15% of what is recommended.^[25]

Troop relocation

Brazilian Army presence in the border regions of the Amazon in 1999.

Brazil has the necessity to patrol its 16,880 kilometers (10,488 miles) of land borders^[37]. Since the 1990s Brazil has been relocating its forces in accordance to this national security requirement.

Between 1992 and 2008, the 1^st, 2^nd and 16^th Jungle Infantry Brigades^[38][39], the 3^rd Infantry Battalion, the 19^th Logistics Battalion, and the 22^nd Army Police Platoon were transferred by the Army from the states of Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande Do Sul to the Amazon region^[40]. After those redeployments the number of troops that the Army has in the that region rose to 25,000.^[41] Also relocated from the state of Rio de Janeiro were the 1^st and 3^rd Combat Cars Regiment that are now stationed in the city of Santa Maria in the state of Rio Grande Do Sul^[40].

However, despite those efforts, the presence of the Armed Forces on the border regions of the Brazilian Amazon continues to be sparse and disperse that's because the Army has just 28 border detachments in that area, a total of 1,600 soldiers or 1 men for every 7 km (4 mi.) of border.^[42] More redeployments are expected since the states of Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo still concentrate over 49,000 soldiers^[40]. On May 2008, the Navy announced plans to reposition its forces throughout Brazil^[40].

Service obligation and manpower

The age for voluntary service is 17-45 years, and an increasing percentage of the ranks are "long-service" volunteer professionals. Brazil's military manpower as of a 2005 estimate is 33 million males age 19-49 and 38 million females age 19-49 fit for military service.

Males in Brazil are required to enlist for serving 12 months (24 months in the air force, 36 in the navy) of military service upon their 18th birthday. However, most enlisted are dismissed, and do not serve at all. Most often, the service is performed in military bases as close as possible to the person's home. The government does not require those planning to attend college or holding a permanent job to serve. There are also several other exemptions to compulsory service, including health reasons, tattoos(infection risk), height and weight, etc.

Women were allowed to serve in the armed forces beginning in early 1980s, when the Brazilian Army became the first army in South America to accept women into career ranks.

References

See also

• Brazil and weapons of mass destruction
• Policing in Brazil
• Military Police of Brazilian States
• BOPE: Special Police Operations Battalion of the Military Police of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• List of Wars involving Brazil

External links

• Brazilian Ministry of Defence
• Brazil military profile from the CIA World Factbook
• Brazil military guide from GlobalSecurity.org

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