LATIN AMERICA: Brazil Nuke Sub Investigation

Suspected Fraud Probe.

Brazilian federal police are investigating potential irregularities in a military program that aims to build a nuclear-powered submarine in partnership with France by 2023, Reuters reports, quoting a Brazilian newspaper.

Brazilian submarines
Brazilian Navy photo via Wikipedia

The newspaper,  Folha de S. Paulo reported today (July 29) that Folha said police searched for documents that could prove suspicions of fraud in the program. The search was part of a wider probe that led to the arrests on Tuesday (July 28) of two executives involved in building a nuclear power plant for state-run utility Eletrobras.

Federal police did not respond to a request for comment on whether they were investigating the submarine program, Reuters said. And the newspaper did not say how it had obtained the information.

As part of new defense strategy announced in 2010, to protect the Amazon Basin and Brazil’s Atlantic offshore oil deposits, Brazil is building a fleet of five submarines — one of them nuclear-powered — with French contractor DCNS.

Brazil is Latin America’s largest country and the sixth-largest economy in the world.

The government announced last year it would buy 36 Gripen NG fighter jets made by Sweden’s Saab to replace aging Air Force jets.

Brazil: CIA World Factbook