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According to information released by the portal of CNN Brasil, the commander of the Brazilian Army, General Tomás Paiva, signed an ordinance approving the land force transformation policy, a document that foresees changes in the institutional design, capabilities, doctrine, and training of military personnel. At least 20% of the troops, equivalent to five of the 25 operational brigades, must maintain a high degree of readiness for immediate response to external threats. The plan includes a new mapping of risks to national defense, which should be ready in the coming weeks and submitted to the High Command probably in June.
The Brazilian Army is redesigning its entire military structure without fanfare, and the document guiding this transformation begins with a diagnosis of the global geopolitical scenario, which it classifies as “imperative” for Brazil to follow the global trend of increasing investments in defense. The ordinance signed by Commander Tomás Paiva points to profound changes in how the land force organizes, trains, and prepares for contemporary conflicts and for the wars of the future, including the proliferation of drones, unmanned systems, and precision fires.
The scenario justifying the urgency is alarming. More than 30 countries had conflicts in their territories in 2024, covering 45% of the global population, according to an IMF study. Approximately 1.9 million lives have been lost in the last decade and a half, and there is an ongoing rearmament resulting in increasing indebtedness of countries to bear the costs of defense. NATO members committed to increasing their investments in defense from 2% to 5% of GDP, and the Brazilian Army recognizes that the R$ 30 billion taken from the fiscal framework for the modernization of the Armed Forces over six years are insufficient.
The five brigades that will be on permanent readiness
The transformation project establishes that at least 20% of the troops must maintain a “high degree” of readiness for immediate response to potential external threats. Of the 25 currently operational brigades, five will have this characteristic: the Paratrooper Brigade in Rio de Janeiro, the Airmobile Brigade in Caçapava (SP), the Jungle Infantry Brigade in Marabá (PA), the Mechanized Infantry Brigade in Campinas (SP), and the Armored Cavalry Brigade in Ponta Grossa (PR).
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The concept is what the military calls “asymmetric deterrence.” In practice, knowing that Brazil may face better-equipped rivals, the strategy is to maintain forces capable of deploying to any area of the country and provide an initial response that neutralizes or minimizes threats before the enemy consolidates its position. The geographical distribution of the five brigades covers from the Amazon to the South, ensuring the capacity to project force at any point in the national territory.
The four types of force the Army will have
The new institutional design reorganizes the Brazilian Army into four categories of troop employment. Immediate employment forces are positioned near borders and potential crisis areas for initial response. The readiness forces are the five brigades capable of operating anywhere in the territory with offensive combat power.
The forces for sustained employment are fundamental for prolonged and large-scale conflicts, responsible for territorial defense, mobilizable reserve formation, and state support. Multi-domain employment forces represent the most significant innovation, equipped with capabilities to operate in multiple domains simultaneously, including cyber, space, and informational, integrating the Component Land Force or the Joint Command. This last category reflects the evolution of modern conflicts, where war occurs in dimensions that go far beyond the physical battlefield.
The ammunition crisis and the defense industrial base
The document recognizes that having more money is not enough: “The current global demand for military-grade materials exceeds existing productive capacity.” The Brazilian Army already feels this reality, facing difficulties in renewing its ammunition stock in the international market, where demand is so heated by the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East that traditional suppliers cannot meet all buyers.
The proposed solution is the “strengthening of the Defense Industrial Base,” ensuring critical national production capabilities that protect Brazil against dependence on foreign suppliers. If the country cannot buy ammunition on the international market when needed, the only alternative is to manufacture it domestically, which requires investments in factories, technology, and specialized labor that Brazil does not yet possess on a sufficient scale.
Drones, sensors, and the technological warfare of the future
The diagnosis of the transformation policy identifies that contemporary conflicts are marked by the “exponential acceleration of technological innovation” and the “proliferation of sensors, unmanned systems, and precision fires.” The war in Ukraine demonstrated that cheap drones can destroy multi-million dollar tanks, and the Brazilian Army recognizes that it needs to adapt to this new reality before being surprised.
The training of military personnel will also be reformulated to include capacity building in the use of “emerging and disruptive” technologies, a term that encompasses everything from artificial intelligence applied to the battlefield to autonomous surveillance and attack systems. An Army that enters a future conflict without mastering these technologies will be defeated regardless of the size of its personnel, and the document makes it clear that transformation is a condition for institutional survival.
South America’s natural resources as a strategic target
The document highlights two factors that make Brazil’s defense particularly challenging. The South American subcontinent possesses an abundance of natural resources highly coveted by foreign powers, from the water of the Amazon to the lithium of the Andes, and this wealth gains strategic importance in a multipolar world where major powers compete for access to raw materials.
The second factor is the expansion and sophistication of transnational organized crime, which poses increasing challenges to sovereignty and governance in the region. The Brazilian Army needs to prepare for threats ranging from conventional invasions to hybrid operations that combine drug trafficking, cyberattacks, and disinformation in the same theater of operations. The document concludes that “effectiveness in combat is directly associated with information superiority, lethality, sustainment, protection, and mobility.”
Do you think Brazil is preparing fast enough for future threats, or should it invest much more in defense? Tell us in the comments what you think about the Army maintaining 20% of its troops in permanent readiness and if you believe the country is vulnerable.
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