“It’s a good moment for Embraer, not only in defence, but across all the business units. We’re growing on all fronts – very good receptivity about the solutions that we’re putting out in the market.”
These were the opening words of Frederico Lemos, Chief Commercial Officer at Embraer Defense, when he talked to Asian Military Review recently. He noted both the KC-390 Millennium transport aircraft and Super Tucano are proving popular right now.
“Particularly on defence, it’s a growth moment. The KC-390 and the A-29 have been performing very well in terms of sales, but also in terms of receptivity from customers and operational availability.”
A total of 16 KC-390s have been delivered to date – eight to the Brazilian Air Force, four to Portugal, two to Hungary, one to the Czech Republic and, in September 2026, the first to Uzbekistan.
Furthermore, there are about 60 orders and 29 options from 13 countries: Austria, Brazil, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Korea, Sweden, the UAE and Uzbekistan, plus it has been selected by Slovakia and Lithuania. Amongst these, this year Embraer has significantly signed up the UAE, the first customer in the Middle East, as well as Colombia, the first Latin American export customer.
Add to this list Greece, after the Portuguese government authorised the €590 million (US$660 million) onward sale of three KC-390s on 22 October 2026. This is the first concrete application of Portugal’s arrangement with Embraer to promote sales in Europe and to NATO members.
Lemos enthused, “The feedback that we’re getting from customers that are already flying the KC-390 is extremely positive. We’re seeing a 93% mission-capable rate for this type of capability, which is unheard of.” He noted that Embraer is ramping up production capacity to keep up with demand.
Asked to explain the growing popularity of the KC-390, as well as high availability rates, Lemos mentioned flexibility. “Being able to do different types of missions is important. The base mission, of course, is airlift, but then a tanking or aerial refuelling capability is becoming more and more relevant for many of the nations acquiring it.” He also mentioned special operations, firefighting, search and rescue and medical evacuation. The Netherlands, for example has contracted a very high-capability intensive care unit for its aircraft.
Embraer is also working to integrate air-launched kinetic effects into the Millennium. At Farnborough Airshow in July, it announced collaboration with Anduril to deploy stand-off deep-strike missiles from the jet-powered aircraft. No weapons have yet been launched from the aircraft, however.
Lemos also noted the KC-390’s connectivity, which allows it to integrate with command-and-control networks so that it can contribute, receive and relay data. Finally, he also discussed the aircraft’s competitive pricing and affordability, which includes lifecycle costs.
Embraer has calculated that there is an addressable market of 184 transport aircraft in Asia-Pacific, where many decades-old aircraft are coming up for renewal. In fact, Asia-Pacific represents 40% of the global addressable market for cargo aircraft, which underscores the importance of the region to the Brazilian company.
Embraer delivered three Millennium aircraft last year, but it is planning to hand over six in 2026. This should include the first KC-390 for the Republic of Korea Air Force, with the initial aircraft reaching the final stage of its assembly last December. By 2030, Embraer hopes to be producing ten C-390s per annum.
Indian ambitions
One place where Embraer has high hopes is India, where the KC-390 is competing in Delhi’s Medium Transport Aircraft (MTA) competition seeking 60 aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF), along with future options. A request for proposals was issued on 12 August 2026, with responses due before the end of this year. A selection is expected in 2028.
Lemos pointed to Embraer’s cooperation with India on its Netra airborne early warning aircraft based on the ERJ 145 platform. “We’re very committed for India’s next MTA aeroplane, working alongside Mahindra.” Indeed, Embraer and Mahindra have announced a partnership and revealed plans to set up a final assembly line in Nagpur if the KC-390 is selected.
India plans to buy twelve aircraft in flyaway condition, and build the remaining 48 locally. Lemos said: “We’re very committed to all the requirements to be able to bring value to their industry, transfer of technology and, of course, bring the capability to the air force.” He said Embraer “is confident” its platform meets the requirements listed in the tender.
Embraer is also engaging with several companies that could become part of the supply chain. “We see a lot of capability in India, also raw materials, and we’ve been announcing already some collaborations. So we’re confident that we’ll be able to set up the right set of capabilities to meet the requirements for the indigenous content in India.”
Asked about the rest of Asia, Lemos shared: “We actually see a lot of interest from different countries in the region. We have active discussions with several countries.” The executive said the KC-390’s capabilities are being recognised.
“Air forces are looking what to do in the future. They need to plan, they need to start replacing those assets, and the 390 is very well suited for the characteristics of the region, bringing productivity, being able to take off and land from shorter runaways, from all the islands that we have in the region, and again, extracting different capabilities from the asset. There’s the need to often disperse capabilities, to have aircraft spread out in countries in different locations, and having that flexibility for missions in every location is very important for several nations, and that’s what we’re hearing from prospective customers.”
Super Tucano
The Philippine Air Force ordered a second batch of six A-29 Super Tucano turboprops, and these are “on the verge of delivery,” Lemos noted. Worldwide, more than 300 Super Tucanos have been ordered to date, and Embraer sees an addressable market for 90 such aircraft in the Asia-Pacific region.
Lemos said there is still “huge demand” for the Super Tucano. Deliveries are occurring to Panama, Paraguay, Portugal and Uruguay, for example. In fact, Portugal was the first NATO country to adopt the A-29.
The Brazilian company is expanding the Super Tucano’s mission set too. “We’re adding a new mission, and that is the counter-drone mission. That’s very valuable for many nations, in the sense that that brings another layer of defence to counter-UAS with a very low cost per kill by using either the machine guns or laser-guided rockets, as an example.”
He said the Super Tucano “is fast enough to be able to intercept even the most recent generation of jet-powered drones, and it’s slow enough to be very effective and efficient in taking them down. That’s what we’re hearing coming from the initial tests that we’ve been doing.
“And coming again to the cost of the engagements, that’s very important. It’s very tough for nations to be spending thousands of dollars per interception when the cost of a drone is very low. The A-29 definitely will be part of a broader system with different layers to intercept different types of threats.”
He said the C-UAS package, which is essentially software-based, could also be offered to existing Super Tucano users. Lemos said customers started asking about a counter-drone capability last year, and that the company “immediately started working on it. We have active developments along that ability, and we hope to bring some more news very soon.”
At Farnborough 2026, Embraer also announced the next iteration of the A-29, which is called the A-29NX “that will bring a different human-machine interface with a large-area display, and also different capabilities in terms of connectivity and kinetic effects”.
Asked what might come off Embraer’s drawing board next, Lemos shared, “We have an amazing team of engineers, very creative. So I’ll say we have a tonne of ideas. What’s coming next? I couldn’t share with you, but the crystal ball is very active!”
by Gordon Arthur
