Euro fighter? Typhoon? Rafale? Are none of these competitions?

They're generation older (with everything that means for their sensor suite, pilot workload and situational awarness) and won't have all the benefits of sharing the same platform with the rest of the Europe.

They're also more expensive.

> won't have all the benefits of sharing the same platform with the rest of the Europe.

Buying the _eurofighter_ wouldn't let them share the same platform as the _rest of Europe_? I realize that the F-35 has racked up a number of sales recently, but there's quite a few eurofighters around still, and more on the way IIRC

Yes, unsurprisingly more countries are procuring F-35 than the Typhoon. Eurofighter also costs about the same while being technologically less advanced, its A/G capability was bolted on after the fact.

Saab JAS 39 Gripen, Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale and Boeings Super Hornet were all possible options.

Only the Rafale was any real competitor. The rest all have glaring issues that disqualify them immediately.

What issues? The Crippen is a great plane.

So great that only Brazil was willing to buy them. And not at all because they were the best planes they could get, but because Brazil strongly prefers to not buy from the US and SAAB offered a great technology transfer deal.

Why does Brazil prefer to not buy from the US?

Political reasons that may or may not make sense. Brazil would perhaps benefit in many ways by aligning themselves with the US, but for a variety of reasons they simply don't want to do that.

In the fickle Brazilian political environment, not aligning with the US might end up being a rather pragmatic move. As a politician, who knows how badly your successor will fuck up those ties?