Brazil-based major aerospace and defence group Embraer announced on Friday that it had delivered the first modernised E-99M airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft to the Brazilian Air Force (abbreviated to FAB in Portuguese). The E-99M (M stands for modernised) is known to Embraer as the EMB145AEW&C, and was derived from the company’s highly-successful ERJ145 50-seat regional airliner. (More than 1 200 ERJ145s have been delivered, accumulating some 30-million flight hours.) AEW&C aircraft are flying radar stations and control centres, able to detect intruder aircraft, particularly low-flying ones, at far greater ranges than ground-based radars and then direct friendly fighters to intercept the intruders and either identify them (in peacetime) or engage them (in wartime). (Intercepting and forcing down drug-smuggling aircraft is one of the FAB’s peacetime missions.) Embraer is one of only a few companies that has developed this category of aircraft.
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