Brazil
advanced toward its target of joining the small club of nations that have
nuclear-powered submarines with the opening of a naval shipyard installation
that will build French-designed submarines.
President Dilma Rousseff inaugurated the factory that will
make metal hull structures for four conventional diesel-electric Scorpene
attack submarines and eventually a fifth submarine powered by a nuclear reactor
developed entirely by Brazil.
She said Brazil,
which is Latin America’s largest economy was a peaceful
country but a defence industry was needed to deter and prevent violent
conflict.
“This facility allows our country to affirm itself on the
world stage and, above all, develop in an independent sovereign way,” Rousseff
said.
The submarines will be made by French shipbuilder DCNS in a
joint venture with Brazil’s
Odebrecht at the Brazilian Navy base on Sepetiba
Bay south of Rio
de Janeiro.
The 7.8 billion Reais (3.95bn dollars) program will turn out
the first conventional submarine in 2015 and the nuclear-powered submarine will
be commissioned in 2023 and enter operation in 2025, the Brazilian Navy said in
a statement.
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