South America > Brazil > Military

View full size

Air force personnel	50,000		[11th of 49]
Armed forces growth	4		[65th of 132]
Armed forces personnel	288,000		[18th of 166]
Army personnel	195,000		[13th of 49]
Branches Brazilian Army, Brazilian Navy (Marinha do Brasil (MB), includes Naval Air and Marine Corps (Corpo de Fuzileiros Navais)), Brazilian Air Force (Forca Aerea Brasileira, FAB)
Conscription Conscription exists.
Conventional arms exports	$100,000,000.00		[14th of 40]
Conventional arms imports	$38,000,000.00		[49th of 85]
expenditure > % of GDP	1.57 %		[60th of 145]
Expenditures > Dollar figure	$11,000,000,000.00		[4th of 111]
Manpower > Availability > Males age 15-49	51,381,000		[5th of 175]
Navy personnel	68,250		[2nd of 49]
Ongoing conflicts > Start of Conflict	1993
personnel	673,000		[9th of 170]
Service age and obligation 21-45 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service obligation - 9 to 12 months; 17-45 years of age for voluntary service; an increasing percentage of the ranks are "long-service" volunteer professionals; women were allowed to serve in the armed forces beginning in early 1980s when the Brazilian Army became the first army in South America to accept women into career ranks; women serve in Navy and Air Force only in Women's Reserve Corps
US military exports	$50,225.00 thousand		[14th of 109]
Weapon holdings	2,153,000		[38th of 137]
WMD > Missile Brazil curtailed the military potential of its space launch vehicle (SLV) program in the early 1990s and joined the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). Previously, however, military control over the SLV program and an ambitious export program of short-range rockets had raised concerns that Brazil might develop ballistic missiles and supply other countries with them.
WMD > Nuclear From the 1960s to the early 1990s, Brazil pursued an ambitious program of nuclear energy and technological development, which included construction of an unsafeguarded uranium enrichment facility under Navy direction. However, Brazil has since disavowed nuclear weapons, become a State Party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and, with Argentina, established a bilateral inspection agency to verify both countries' pledges to use atomic energy only for peaceful purposes. Brazil mines uranium, which is shipped to foreign countries for conversion and enrichment, and returned to Brazil, where it is fabricated in Resende into fuel for its two nuclear power reactors. When completed, a uranium enrichment plant under construction at Resende will allow the country to make its own low-enriched uranium fuel for its nuclear power industry. As of mid-2005, the government of Brazil was considering the possibility of signing an Additional Protocol with the IAEA and was planning to release a comprehensive report on the future of the country's nuclear program.
WMD > Overview Brazil has abjured nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, and curtailed its ballistic missile program in the early 1990s. From the 1970s to the early 1990s, however, Brazil’s nuclear program aroused concern that the country was seeking to develop nuclear weapons. The international community—and Washington in particular—raised additional concerns that technology from Brazil’s space launch vehicle (SLV) program would be used for production of ballistic missiles. Brasilia is now a member of all key international nonproliferation regimes.

Related links:

• Forum discussion > Military
• Stay updated with current stat feeds! Subscribe to the Military RSS / Atom feeds
•  Subscribe to our popular Military factoids RSS / Atom feeds
• Save this page on  del.icio.us / furl / your bookmarks

More facts and figures on Brazil