Brazilian Air Force Chief of Staff and UK Minister for Defence Equipment and Support to Lead at International Fighter Conference in London

LONDON, August 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Defence IQ confirmed that the Brazilian Air Force's Chief of Staff, General Aprígio Eduardo de Moura Azevedo, will lead an exclusive presentation at the International Fighter meeting, taking place 6-8 November 2012 at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London.

General Azevedo will present a session entitled "Enhancing the Operational Capability of the Brazilian Air Force," joined by keynote speaker Minister Peter Luff MP, Minister for Defence Equipment and Support, UK MoD, who will provide attendees with an update on current plans for the UK's F-35 Programme.

The International Fighter meeting comes at a critical time for air power professionals.  With fighter jet updates hitting recent headlines - most notably for the first handover of the Joint Strike Fighter to an international partner - the jet fighter community is abuzz with debates including potential export of outgoing platforms and the prioritisation of upgrades.  These topics, as well as fighter sustainability, life cycle maintenance, air weapons integration and avionics upgrades, will be addressed at the event during sessions, round tables and interactive speaker panels.

"I enjoyed the honesty from the other Air Forces operators on their capabilities and what they had on their wish list of potential upgrades and functionality," stated Lieutenant Colonel Musa Mbhokota, of the South African Air Force during a previous Fighter conference. "The panel discussions were very open and informative on current and future Air Power matters."

Both General Azevedo and Minister Peter Luff MP will be part of this year's international speaker faculty, which is comprised of Chiefs, Commanders and Heads of Air Forces from Nigeria, Malaysia, the US, Bulgaria, Romania, the UK, Canada, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and Turkey.  The event, known as the forum for the jet fighter community, consists of a 2-day main conference, 2 pre-conference focus days on Precision Air Weapons and Electronic Warfare, as well as a gala dinner for attendees.

Air platform manufacturers Raytheon, Boeing, Saab and Eurofighter are joined by the Swedish FMV's Vidsel Test Range and Elettronica as official event partners.

Complete event details are online at http://www.international-fighter.com.

Defence IQ is a unique multimedia platform to discuss and learn about the latest defence developments. Join the 60,000-strong community now: http://www.defenceiq.com/join.cfm.

Defence IQ · Kim Vigilia · defence@iqpc.co.uk · +44(0)20-7368-9510 · London, UK