Brazil halts sale of ex-carrier
The fate of the aircraft carrier NAe São Paulo, which was officially decommissioned from the Brazilian Navy in November 2018 and put up for sale before its expected shipbreaking, is uncertain after the Brazilian government suspended the process on 6 September.
The government said that the Brazilian Navy was resuming responsibility for the São Paulo, although no further details were given.
São Paulo originally served in the French Navy as the aircraft carrier Foch. Under the terms of the deal to sell the vessel to Brazil in 2000, France has the final say over where it can be broken up, probably at an EU-approved shipbreaking facility.
Another option is to transform São Paulo into a museum, at no cost to the Brazilian government. For this purpose the not-for-profit organisation Instituto São Paulo/Foch was established in 2018.
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