The article aims to reconstruct the history of the Brazilian nuclear-powered submarine program, from its origins to the present. Using the concept of technological opportunism, it seeks to understand the position of the different federal administrations vis-à-vis the project, concluding that the Collor, Franco and Cardoso administrations did not support the program. However, they did not terminate the project. Surprisingly, there is a continuity between the military governments and the Lula administration, in the decisive support each gave to the program. With repect to the Navy, the analysis concludes that there were no significant disagreements, with the exception of personal conflicts originating in the autarchic features that the program had assumed and in the problem of scarcity of resources. The article is based on interviews with key actors.
Naval Power; Strategy; Armed Forces; National Defense
