Another confirmation is that the A-Darter missile will not go into the final phase of industrialization due to South Africa’s economic crisis, which has severely affected South African defense companies, including Denel, the company contracted to develop this sophisticated fifth-generation air-to-air missile in collaboration with Brazilian companies.
Without investment from the South African partner, the Brazilian Air Force ran out of resources and no time to carry out industrialization on its own.
Brazil’s Mectron, one of the companies responsible for the Brazilian part of development, went bankrupt a few years ago, which only complicated the situation. This allowed German supplier Diehl Defence to deliver its 5th generation Iris-T missile, with active matrix technology and thrust vectoring capability, within the deadlines set by the FAB. Both the Meteor and iris-T are already missiles integrated into the Gripen.
All the data generated in the development of the A-Darter, and everything necessary for its industrialization in terms of documentation, was formally handed over to the Brazilian Air Force in 2019 by South Africa.