France has agreed to sell the carrier Foch to Brazil and will do so in November, just as the new Charles de Gaulle comes into service. Brazil is paying $42 million for the Foch. The carrier will be renamed Sao Paulo and will replace the Brazilian carrier Minas Gerais (which they brought from Britain in 1956). Brazil is expected to sell the Minas Gerais to Argentina. It will take five months in a French shipyard to refit Foch to Brazil's requirements. Brazil will operate two squadrons of A-4 Skyhawk fighters on the Sao Paulo; it bought 23 such fighters from Kuwait in 1998.--Stephen V Cole