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Aircraft carrier Sao Paulo will be decommissioned

Aircraft carrier "São Paulo" (ex R99 Foch, built in France between 1957 and 1960) was incorporated into the Brazilian Navy in 2000, based on an opportunity purchase from the French National Navy, for US$30 million — no aircraft were included in the price — with the primary purpose of replacing the former "Minas Gerais" Light-Aircraft, at the end of its useful life, and providing the evolution of airborne operations using fixed wing aircraft and A-4 Skyhawk jet propulsion.

Although it already has 37 years of active service at the moment of acquisition, the Ship fulfilled its mission in the first years in activity by the Brazilian fleet, enabling the Navy to acquire the qualification to operate high performance aircraft embarked.

After several attempts to recover operational capacity of the brazil aircraft carrier "NAe Sao Paulo" (A 12), the Brazil Admiralty concluded that the modernization would require high financial investment contain technical uncertainties and would require a long completion period and decided to demobilize the environment, over the next three years.

A program to obtain a new ship-aerodrome x aircraft set will occupy the Navy's third acquisition priority, following the PROSUB / Nuclear Program and the Tamandaré Corvette Construction Program. The cost of acquiring this new binomial will be substantially lower than the cost of the modernization of the "Sao Paulo" and of the obtaining new aircraft compatible with this aircraft carrier. The AF-1 aircraft are expected to be at the end of their life when São Paulo ends its modernization.

NAe : Navio Aerodromo
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