Embraer has launched the KC-390 military tanker/transport with a seven-year, $1.3 billion development contract from the Brazilian air force (FAB). The all-new aircraft is scheduled to fly in 2012 and enter service in 2015.

Launch of the twin-turbofan, high-wing KC-390 was announced on April 14 at the Latin American Aero and Defense (LAAD) show in Rio de Janiero. The Brazilian government will fund the complete cost of developing the aircraft, including two prototypes and tooling up for production, says CEO Frederico Fleury Curado in an interview with Aviation Week. When Embraer first revealed studies of a military transport at LAAD in 2007, its concept was to develop a "quick and simple" derivative of the Embraer 190 large regional jet at a cost of $600 million, with $400 million to be provided by the government and $200 million by Embraer and risk-sharing partners.

But Curado says this "was not a realistic aircraft -- it could not fulfill the mission." The fly-by-wire KC-390, although sharing a similar high-wing, twin-turbofan, T-tail configuration, will be an all-new design to meet Brazilian air force requirements and compete head-on with the Lockheed Martin C-130J.

Embraer will spend the next two years completing definition studies, freezing the configuration, and making supplier decisions jointly with the air force. Curado says the KC-390 is a "sovereign program" and it will be the government's decision whether to involve other companies or countries as strategic partners.

The tanker/transport is expected to be assembled at Embraer's Gavião Peixoto plant, and will be the largest aircraft yet produced by the company. It is also the manufacturer's first new military product in more than a decade. "We have a challenge ahead, but we are up to it," says Curado.

Image: Embraer