More than 500 service members from the Brazilian Air Force (FAB, in Portuguese), Brazilian Army, and Brazilian Navy participated in the Anti-Aircraft Shield Joint Training Operation, October 27-30, to improve defense systems against enemy aircraft.
FAB’s Aerospace Operations Command (COMAE, in Portuguese) coordinated the training, monitoring the development of the scenario in real time from Brasília, and sent orders to Military Operation Centers that identified enemy aircraft carrying out the incursion, and the Anti-Aircraft Defense Units that simulated firing of anti-aircraft weapons.
“We used all the Air Force, Navy, and Army resources to build a robust defense,” said FAB Lieutenant General Ricardo Cesar Mangrich, chairman of COMAE’s Joint Chiefs of Staff and exercise director, in a Ministry of Defense statement.
“It’s not easy to coordinate, supervise, and command the Anti-Aircraft Defense of a country as large as Brazil. As such, we must train,” added Lt. Gen. Mangrich.
Each force had a role in the exercise. The FAB acted as an enemy unit, simulating attacks against sensitive points that would have to be protected in a war scenario.
The Army and Navy launched responses from the Anti-Aircraft Defense Units of the Brazilian Air Defense System. The Defense Units were installed in two sectors — the Continent and Coastline.
The Continent sector, headquartered at FAB Wing 2, in Anápolis, Goiás, covered the regions of Cristalina and Ipameri, Goiás, and Uberlândia, Minas Gerais.
The Coastline sector, at Wing 12, in Rio de Janeiro, covered the municipalities of São João da Barra and Macaé, Rio de Janeiro, as well as the maritime area where the Brazilian Navy’s Corvette Barroso is located, on Rio de Janeiro’s coastline.
“In previous years, we spread training across the national territory. This time we decided to concentrate the operations in the continent and coastline regions, where we identified possible areas of strategic interest for the country,” said in a statement Major Henrique Moraes Furtado, exercise coordinator for the FAB.
