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United States Strengthening Influence on Brazil’s Missile Program
01 March 2001
Summary
Brazil and the United States have reached an agreement to allow U.S. firms to
participate in commercial space-launch activities at the Alcantara launch
site in Brazil. Although the agreement between the United States and Brazil
will help Brazil’s aerospace economy, it will also allow the United States to
strengthen its influence on the Brazilian missile development program. The
United States, however, is not the only nation vying for influence at
Alcantara.
Analysis
Brazil plans to invest more than $13 million to build port facilities at its
Alcantara Launch Center in 2001. The investment, which will allow heavy
cargos to come easily to Brazil’s burgeoning space facility, is part of an
overall infrastructure improvement plan in anticipation of U.S. and other
foreign companies coming to Brazil to launch satellites.
Last year, Washington and Brasilia reached a Technical Safeguards Agreement
allowing U.S. firms to launch American satellites from Brazil’s Alcantara
launch facility – potentially one of the most flexible and cost-effective
launch facilities in the world. The agreement, however, blocks transfer of
U.S. rocket technology to Brazil. Although the agreement will help Brazil’s
aerospace economy, it will allow the United States to keep a vigilant eye on,
and have influence over, the Brazilian missile development program.
In the mid-1980s, Brazil began developing ballistic missiles based on its
sounding rocket program. Brazilian companies also worked with Iraq and Libya,
selling and trading missile technology, according to a report by the Center
for Nonproliferation Studies. Since the Cuban missile crisis, Washington has
resolved to exist in a hemisphere free of ballistic missiles other than its
own. Brazil’s ballistic missile program threatened, once again, to bring
missile proliferation into Washington’s backyard. Now the United States has
been given the opportunity to take an important role in Brazil’s aerospace
industry, which would place Washington in a position where it can watch, and
influence, Brazil’s developing aerospace industry.
Brazil’s missile development served two key purposes – national defense and
economic gain. While its program was initially designed to counter a
perceived threat from Argentina, the sale of missile technology proved
lucrative.
The Alcantara Launch Center (CLA) in Maranhao, Brazil. In early 1994, Brazil
began to change its policy of selling missiles abroad because of pressure
applied by the United States and other Missile Technology Control Regime
(MTCR) signatories. Membership in the MTCR, a voluntary arrangement among
several nations governing the export of ballistic missile technology, allows
countries access to space technology banned to non-members.
Brazil was allowed to join the MTCR in 1995 after shifting control of its
space program to civilians and signing treaties prohibiting the development
of weapons of mass destruction. Abandoning its indigenous ballistic missile
program was another key stipulation of Brazil’s membership.
In abandoning its ballistic missile program, Brazil sought a new source of
revenue from its aerospace industry. Brazil is marketing its exceptionally
well-placed Alcantara launch facility as one of the most highly versatile and
cost effective launch sites in the world. The launch site is in northern
Brazil only 2.3 degrees south of the equator, which allows heavier payload
launches using less fuel than those launched from higher latitudes. The cost
of launching rockets at from Cape Canaveral in Florida or the Baikonor
Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan will be reduced by 20 percent to 30 percent at
Alcantara. The seaport and airport will allow easy access of large cargos to
the facility.
Even though the United States has signed an agreement with Brazil, the
entrepreneurial Brazilians are not limiting their new launch facility to U.S.
companies. The commercial space-launch industry does not have enough launch
facilities to meet the demands of its clients, a factor behind the
international competition for rights to launch from Alcantara. The
satellite-launch industry faces a multibillion-dollar backlog of requests to
have satellites put into orbit around Earth.
Washington’s agreement to allow U.S. rocket launches at Alcantara addresses
both the economic needs and the desire to maintain a close watch on Brazil’s
missile development. The agreement offers Brazil access to technology in
several sectors of the aerospace industry including: aircraft design and
parts, commercial space technology, air traffic control and other
airport-related technology. At the same time, it forbids the transfer of U.S.
rocket technology to Brazil.
These airport- and aircraft-related technologies are very important to Brazil
since airplanes are the only quick way of traveling to Brazil’s largely
inaccessible interior. Brazil is also privatizing its airports, which
provides an even greater incentive for Brazil to accept an increased level of
cooperation with U.S. aerospace companies.
Many companies and nations from around the world will fight for launching
rights in Alcantara and may be willing to stretch the bounds of technological
assistance in exchange for launching rights. Ukraine’s government has signed
an agreement to allow the launch of Ukrainian-built Tsyklon rockets from
Alcantara and has indicated a willingness to provide technology for Brazil’s
satellite launch vehicle (VLS). China has also considered launching its Long
March rockets from Alcantara. Additionally, Russia has shown a willingness to
trade missile technology with Brazil after Brazil’s 1995 accession to the
MTCR, according to the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control.
The U.S. plan for hemispheric missile control involves giving Brazil a
lucrative economic alternative to developing ballistic missiles. Washington
could keep tabs on Brazilian missile development if it has a presence at the
Alcantara launch facility. The economic motive for U.S. involvement may be
secondary, but it is integral to why the United States wants access to
Alcantara.
Although the relationship between the United States and Brazil will help both
countries economically, Washington also intends to use its presence in
Alcantara as a way to limit Brazilian attempts to acquire ballistic missile
technology. To succeed, the United States will have to offer more important
benefits to Brazil than other companies and nations. This could prove
especially difficult since companies and nations from all over the globe will
be much more willing to trade technology related to ballistic missiles in
exchange for rights to the launch facility.
- [CTRL] United States Strengthening Influence o... Bill Richer
- William Shannon
