The "Sao Paulo" was bought from the French Navy in 2000 at an opportunity price

According to the South American website "Military Power," after several attempts to recover the operational capacity of the A-12 Sao Paulo aircraft carrier, the Brazilian admirance has concluded that the modernization program would require a very high financial investment, would contain technical uncertainties and would need a long period until its conclusion, to which the ship's downfall has been decided that will be carried out over the next three years. A programme to obtain a new set of naval-aerodrome, as well as new aircraft, will become the third priority of the procurement for the Brazilian Navy, shortly after the PROSUB (Submersible Enactment Programme), the Navy Nuclear Programme and the Tamandaré Corbeta Building Program. The cost of this new binomial will be substantially lower than the modernization of the "Sao Paulo" aircraft carrier and the expected acquisition of new air vectors compatible with the aircraft carrier, since the still-updated AF-1 model should be at the end of its life when the "Sao Paulo" had completed its modernization.

The Sao Paulo joined the Navy in 2000, acquired as a "occasion" to the French Navy, in order to replace the old aircraft carrier "Minas Gerais," at that time, to be deactivated, and to facilitate the development of air operations carried out by the use of fixed wing aircraft, the A-4 Skyhawk reactors. Feasibility studies indicate that the expensive program would take a lot of time for its implementation, about ten years, facing several uncertainties. Until the Navy receives a new aircraft carrier, the ability to carry out naval war operations with fixed wing aircraft, which is obtained at the expense of large investments and intense training of the pilots in Brazil and abroad, will be carried out from the naval air base of Sao Pedro de Aldeia other facilities on the ground, and also through joint training with Amigas.