Rio de Janeiro, Aug 6 (IANS) Brazil plans to retire an entire fleet of Dassault Mirage fighter jets with their replacement still pending, a Brazilian daily said.
The Dassault Mirage 2000 jet fleet, stationed at an air force base in Anapolis to protect Brazil's federal capital city of Brasilia, will be officially retired by the end of the year, Xinhua reported.
The old Mirage jets were bought from France in 2005 and have reached the end of their service lives. Plans to replace the fleet remain pending.
Brazil announced to purchase 36 fighter jets together with the transfer of jet-building technology as early as in the 1990s, but no final decision has been made.
The purchase, worth $4.5 billion, is expected to be finalised by the end of the year, before the Mirage fleet stops operating, said the report released Monday.
Shortlisted are Dassault Rafale from France, Boeing F-18 Super Hornet from the US and Sweden's Gripen NG.
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