MICLA-BR (misil de crucero de largo alcance)

Closely linked to the grand and exclusive project in Brazil owned by the Army, the Brazilian Air Force intends to expand its air superiority and denying the enemy space in the air, land and sea, by developing the MICLA-BR long-range cruise missile. This project was at first was denied by the Air Force due to the secrecy of the scope.

The Brazilian air force chose defence contractor Avibras Industria Aeroespacial to develop a family of air-launched long-range cruise missiles. The service signed a memorandum of understanding with Avibras to develop the weapon, called the MICLA-BR, it said on 23 November 2020. The MICLA-BR is an adaptation of the AV-TM 300. The air-launched variant lacks the ground-launched type�s fold-out wings, but otherwise looks similar. The Brazilian air force has said it wants the cruise missile to have a range of 162nm (300km). The air-launched cruise missile project is part of the Military Strategic Plan for Aeronautics (MICLA-BR), and in 2019 was among the Brazilian air force�s 18 strategic projects, others being the Saab F-39 Gripen fighter and Embraer KC-390 transport.

In the public hearing held on 24 September 2019 at the Foreign Relations and National Defense Commission, under the theme "Suppositions of national sovereignty", it was revealed that among the projects of the Brazilian Air Force is the development of the MICLA- missile. BR (long-range cruise missile). According to the filing, the MICLA-BR is a air-launched development of the MTC-300 (or AV-TM 300) surface-to-surface missile launched by the 2020 Astros vehicles.

In early March 2019, a "tip" from a trusted source reported a test of an artifact similar to a large missile installed in the center-line of an F-5EM Tiger II fighter at Canoas Air Force Base. Asked about the topic, the Air Force was silent, not even responding to the emails sent to CECOMSAER. On the same day, the FAB issued an internal directive recommending the reinforcement of security in the operational aprons of air bases, especially for people suspicious of "photographing something".

Two months later, on May 7th, the Ministry of Defense published a video about the 100 days of the Bolsonaro Government in the field of Defence, and to the surprise of the Air Force itself, there was, at five minutes and five seconds, the "secret" photo of the test. At that time, the image was evaluated as an air-to-ground version of the AV-MTC, the cruise missile developed by the Brazilian Avibras to equip the launchers of the Strategic Program of the Brazilian Army Astros 2020.

Brigadier Almeida, during his presentation of the call " The FAB 18", spoke about the strategic programs of the Force and there was, crisp and clear, a slide detailing the MICLA BR Program, or Long Range Cruise Missile, with the following explanation "The MICLA-BR Project consists in the development of a 300 KM CRUISE MISSILE, with propulsion based on a reaction engine, for launching from aerial and surface platforms! Such weapons system will be equipped with a navigation and control system by referenced coordinates, employing inertial/GPS and navigation redundancy by image correlation." In his speech, Almeida defined the MICLA-BR as "The sixth project Strategic Air Force is a large-scale project that militarily equalizes Brazil with other countries that have this capability.

The FAB disclosure eventually cleared up the image contained in a video released by the Defense Ministry on 07 June 2019, which featured what appeared to be a surface version of the MTC-300 tactical cruise missile conducting integration tests on a F-Fighter. -5M of the Brazilian Air Force. At the time of the MD video release, many denied that it was an air-launched cruise missile and were given the most diverse excuses and interpretations for the orange artifact shown in the image.

According to the document of the AERONATICAL MILITARY STRATEGIC PLAN 2018-2027 available on the FAB website, the MICLA-BR (long-range cruise missile) project consists of the development of a 300-km-range cruise missile with an engine of propulsion. reaction, for launching by aerial and surface platforms. It will be equipped with a referenced coordinate navigation and control system, employing an inertial / GPS system and a redundant image correlation navigation system. Depending on the type of mission, the MICLA can be equipped with an Infrared (IR) proximity sensor or a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), with a visible / IR camera or magnetic sensor.

The development of MICLA-BR was still at an early stage, but there are already great differences in relation to its original project, because the Army's MTC-300 uses a booster, a rocket engine, for launch and during the cruise flight, already in the subsonic phase the propulsion is made by a turbine developed by Avibras. In the air-to-surface missile version the booster is unnecessary, since the launch is carried out by an aircraft that disperses it at a certain speed and altitude, gaining subsonic speeds quickly.

This air-to-surface missile brings Brazil greater conditions to maintain its national sovereignty in the face of the nation's defense and security, but it raises the limits that the international community and past governments have placed on the Brazilian military sector that slows development and obscures the great capacity of national military engineering, since there is an agreement to which Brazil is a signatory and limits the advance of this type of weaponry beyond 300 km and limits the ability to carry warheads over 500 kg, this is the Missile Technology Control Regime, an informal association of countries that was created in 1987, as a way of contributing to the fight against the proliferation of missiles capable of launching weapons of mass destruction, through the application of export controls on missile goods and technologies and directly related services.

In this MICLA-BR version, the missile can reach distances greater than 300 km, and initially it would have two versions: one with an Auto-Explosive (AE) warhead, maximum weight up to 200 kg, containing 109 kg of explosive PBX, and another with multiple warheads, with about 66 submunitions of 70 mm, a module more recommended to contain armored vehicles and transport vehicles, a true system that destroys enemies that needs to be, along with other devices, ready for use very soon, mainly due to the new external ties that the Brazilian nation has signed with other countries, due to the economic capacity in intense restoration of normality and cordially to the advance of tensions in the most alarming borders of the Brazilian territory.