Tecnologia naval e política: o caso da marinha brasileira na era dos contratorpedeiros, 1942-1970

Abstract

This work aims to analyze the technological modernization of the Brazilian Navy in the period between 1942 and 1970. Despite starting the Second World War without conditions of defending the country, the Brazilian Navy has modernized with American support, equipping it with modern anti-submarine equipment within the concept of hemispheric defense. At the end of the conflict and start of the Cold War, U.S. politics for the Latin America changed, and the Brazilian Navy stopped receiving modern military equipment from that country. Nevertheless, most Brazilian officers continued supporting the principles of the hemispheric defense, which mean subordination, strategic and intellectual, to the U.S. Navy. For much of the following decades, despite the changes in the foreign policy and investments in scientific and technological research in Brazil, the Brazilian Navy continued subordinated to the concept of hemispheric defense, with an obsolete fleet and unable to get modern ships. In late 1960s, the Brazilian Navy begins to face difficulties in acquiring modern weapons because of changes in the U.S. politics, culminating in the acquisition of British frigates, which despite having great emphasis on anti-submarine warfare, mark the recovery of shipbuilding in Brazil, the beginning of the withdrawal of the material and intellectual dependence on the U.S. and a major technological leap in the Brazilian Navy.