Strategic project, nuclear submarine suffers cuts and may sink.
Budget cuts of up to 30% by the economic team of the Temer government could ruin the Nuclear-Powered Submarine Development Program (Prosub), the most strategic project of the Brazilian Navy, which intended to launch its first submarine in the third quarter of 2018; the shipyard has already slowed down its work and is now hoping for a new release of funds; the submarine is strategic for Brazil to become one of the five countries in the world to possess the technology to build a nuclear submarine, in addition to renewing its fleet of four submarines, which are already outdated.
247 – A budget cut announced by Michel Temer's economic team for the Navy could ruin the Nuclear-Powered Submarine Development Program (Prosub).
The Brazilian Navy's most strategic project aimed to launch its first submarine in the third quarter of 2018, but with budget cuts reaching 30%, this is unlikely to happen. The project is budgeted at R$ 30 billion, of which R$ 16 billion has been spent since its announcement in 2008.
Reporting by Jeferson Ribeiro, from the newspaper O Globo.He explains that the shipyard where the submarine is being built has already slowed down its work pace and is now hoping for a new release of funds.
According to the Navy, the submarine is strategic for Brazil to become one of the five countries in the world to possess the technology to build a nuclear submarine, in addition to renewing its fleet of four submarines, which are already quite outdated.
The Navy commander, Admiral Eduardo Bacellar Leal Ferreira, warns of the risk of the Prosub project failing and the country's image being associated with a failure.
"Just as success will represent a new perspective for Brazil on the international stage in terms of respect and credibility, failure could represent exactly the opposite. In other words, Brazil didn't succeed," he says. "This will always be marked as a failure," he adds.
In 2014, when she inaugurated the main building of the Submarine Construction Shipyard at the Navy Shipyard and Naval Base in Itaguaí (RJ), used for the construction of the five nuclear submarines, Dilma Rousseff commented on the importance of the project for a well-equipped defense to protect the country's sovereignty and the pre-salt reserves.