Portugal outlines good housekeeping with KC-390 Millennium plane deal; Air Force buys aircraft at contract price, not current price Air Force buys aircraft at contract price, not current price Announcing plans to purchase a 6th KC-390 Millennium aircraft for the Portuguese Air Force, defence minister Nuno Melo said the government is benefiting from good housekeeping. "We will acquire it at the price agreed when we signed the contract, i.e. some time ago, and not at the price at which the aircraft is being sold now. Therefore, if Portugal wanted to sell it, it would resell it at a huge profit", he told reporters during his visit to the Paris Air Show today. The full plan is to buy the Embraer multi-mission aircraft, and sell 10 other aircraft to NATO countries. Melo referred to the partnership between Portugal and Brazil through Embraer - an aerospace corporation of world renown - "results in huge profits for Portugal and strengthens (Europes) defence industries". With the option to sell 10 aircraft, "each aircraft sold means EUR11 million for the Portuguese state and, for each of these sales, we add advantages that will bring even more profit to the Portuguese Air Force," he said. In 2019, Portugal agreed to purchase five KC-390 aircraft and a simulator from Brazilian manufacturer Embraer, and Embraer has already delivered two to replace the Hercules C-130s, for a total of EUR850 million. As part of the process, the team modified the aircraft to bring it into line with the requirements that NATO, the United Nations and the European Union have established, and these modifications enable other countries to purchase the aircraft at a profit for Portugal. Melo added that Portugal is intrinsically involved in the KC-390 Millennium project, participating in the manufacture of numerous components, using "cutting-edge technology that puts it at the forefront of a project that is also national in scope, on a global scale". Portugal is also the only European country that "provides training for KC390 pilots" at its centre in Beja - and this too constitutes "a very large source of income". Looked at another way, the more KC aircraft are sold worldwide, "the more Portugal benefits," said Melo. It was in August 2019 that the Portuguese government and Embraer signed an agreement to purchase five KC-390s, agreeing to deliver one aircraft per year, with the third scheduled for delivery in the coming months. The KC-390 Millennium can perform a wide range of missions, including the transport and launch of cargo and troops, aeromedical evacuation, search and rescue (SAR), humanitarian aid and disaster response (HADR) operations, firefighting, and aerial refuelling, both as a tanker and as a receiver. In addition, the aircraft can support maritime surveillance operations, increasing range and flight time through in-flight refuelling, as well as faster and more strategic transport with fewer stopovers, allowing the transport of people and cargo to the theatre of operations. Depending on the version, it could cost the Ministry of Defence £130 million, an "investment" that Melo insists will equip the Portuguese Air Force as well as pay for itself. "We invest in defence, with a great economic and financial return, which helps pay for the investment made in re-equipping the Armed Forces in Portugal, and generates added profit for the Portuguese economy and for the state," he said. In the ministers view, the country "uses the best of its intelligence, its engineers, its technology" in a project that pays off, which is why his visit to the show in Le Bourget today aimed to sell (and make a profit) rather than to buy - in addition to modernising the Armed Forces, writes Lusa. "We are investing up to 2% with a return for the Portuguese economy (...) and it seems to me that we are already talking about a sufficiently large step given our circumstances, not least because we measure this investment as a percentage of GDP. Therefore, we must calculate these steps carefully, ensuring a steady strengthening of the economy, which, through increased GDP, also allows for a greater return on national defence. That is all we are doing, to fulfil our commitments to NATO," said Melo. Brazils Embraer has an Engineering and Business Centre in Lisbon, making the country "the gateway for a global company in Europe, with benefits for everyone," he continued Asked about the manufacture of Super Tucano aircraft in Portugal at the request of NATO, Nuno Melo revealed that "Portuguese industry will deliver the first five this year." This will also involve an investment of close to EUR200 million in re-equipping the Armed Forces, of which EUR75 million will be allocated to Portuguese industries to reconfigure the aircraft to NATO specifications. Source material: LUSA