Brazilian Army aims to boost CBRN defences

The Brazilian Army line up a series of mobile field equipment to address CBRN risks. (Victor Barreira)

The Brazilian Army has embarked on a new effort to modernise its chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) defence capabilities.

Service officials are acquiring new equipment to gradually replace hardware that is reaching the end of its life cycle in a bid to boost existing capabilities, the Commander of the 1st CBRN Defence Battalion (1º Btl DQBRN), Lieutenant Colonel Jorge Otávio Domingues Costa, told Janes.

The 1º Btl DQBRN was established in December 2012 for reconnaissance/surveillance, identification, and decontamination of CBRN threats. Based in Rio de Janeiro city, it is the army's front line CBRN asset and has approximately 300 personnel.

Additional army CBRN defence units include the CBRN Defence Company (Cia DQBRN) of the Special Operations Command in Goiania city and the Institute of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Defense in Rio de Janeiro city.

Lt Col Domingues said that in 2020 and 2021, the army ordered detection and identification equipment from Thermo Fisher Scientific, Bertin Technologies, and AIRSENSE Analytics; and individual protection equipment from Seyntex, BioAmerica Defense, Avon Protection, and Paul Boyé Technologies.

The battalion could also receive either eight or nine VBE DQBRN-MSR (Viatura Blindada Especial de Defesa Química, Biológica, Radiológica e Nuclear – Média Sobre Rodas) CBRN reconnaissance vehicles and five vehicles for the Cia DQBRN, according to Lt Col Domingues. The VBE DQBRN-MSR will be based on the VBTP-MSR Guarani 6×6 amphibious armoured vehicle.