View source for Amazon Surveillance System

{{Short description|Surveillance system used for monitoring Amazônia Legal}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{More citations needed|date=October 2021}}
[[File:Rumsfeld_visits_SIVAM.jpg|thumb|[[US Secretary of Defence]] [[Donald Rumsfeld]] visits SIVAM in [[Manaus]], [[Amazonas (Brazilian state)|Amazonas]], Brazil]]
The '''Amazon Surveillance System''' ('''SIVAM''', {{langx|pt|Sistema de Vigilância da Amazônia}}), is a complex surveillance system used for monitoring [[Amazônia Legal]] ("legal Amazon area"). This area includes the Brazilian rainforest, to curb the trafficking of illegal [[narcotics]] and to curb [[illegal logging]] or burning of the forest. The system uses a mixture of fixed and mobile ground radar, as well as airborne surveillance using the [[Embraer]] [[Embraer ERJ 145 family|ERJ 145]]. The combined platform is called the [[Embraer R-99|R-99]].

The U.S. military contractor [[Raytheon]], the Brazilian firm [[ATECH]], the Canadian Aerospace company [[MacDonald Dettwiler|MacDonald Dettwiler (MDA)]] and Embraer won the tender to build the SIVAM system. Today, the project has delivered its equipment to the government, creating the SIPAM (Amazonian Protection System) and enhancing the Brazilian Airspace Control System. SIPAM headquarters are located in [[Brasília]], Brazil.

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[[File:Todo_conj_SW_NE.jpg|thumb|The SIVAM complex]]

==Raytheon controversy==
Allegations of [[bribery]] were made against Raytheon in 1995 in connection with its efforts to win a 1.4 [[1,000,000,000 (number)|billion]] US dollar [[radar]] contract from Brazil for the SIVAM project. SIVAM, the acronym for "System for Vigilance over the [[Amazon Basin|Amazon]]," was a complex radar [[surveillance]] system planned to be used to monitor the [[Amazon rainforest]], allegedly to curb the trafficking of [[illegal drugs|narcotics]] and to curb illegal [[logging]] or burning of the forest. Brazilian police wiretapped a telephone conversation between a special advisor to the [[Brazilian President]] [[Fernando Henrique Cardoso]], and Raytheon's operative in Brazil, Jose Afonso Assumpcão. According to transcripts published in the Brazilian national weekly ''[[Isto É]]'', when Assumpcão told Gomes dos Santos that Brazilian Senator Gilberto Miranda might block the Raytheon contract, Gomes dos Santos responded, "Damn, did you already pay this guy?". Gomes dos Santos and Brazil's aviation minister resigned because of allegations that this conversation suggested that bribes were paid.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1995-11-21-9511210226-story.html |title=U.S. Firm Denies Role in Brazil Bribery Tale|access-date=23 September 2021|website=Chicago Tribune|date=21 November 1995 }}</ref> Raytheon ultimately was awarded the contract after [[lobbying]] by the administration of U.S. President [[Bill Clinton]].{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

==See also==
* [[Surveillance]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
* {{in lang|fr}} [[Michel Braudeau]], « L'espion qui vient du ciel » (Espionage which comes from the sky), in ''Le rêve amazonien'', [[éditions Gallimard]], 2004 ({{ISBN|2-07-077049-4}}).

==External links==
* [http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2006/kvh/sivam.html SIVAM Presentation]
* [http://www.sipam.gov.br/ SIPAM site]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070528020859/http://www.atech.br/ ATECH site]
* SIVAM Thesis Naval Postgraduate School, 1999 [https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA374105.pdf]

{{Portal bar|Brazil}}

[[Category:Communications in Brazil]]
[[Category:Amazon basin]]
[[Category:Radar networks]]


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