The proposal is still on hold since Brazilian President Inazio "Lula" da Silva disapproved of Israel's activities against Hamas in Gaza, five months after the Brazilian Army declared its intention to purchase howitzers from Israel's Elbit Systems.

Military sources in Brasilia who discussed internal discussions with Defense News on the condition of anonymity claim that the project is still "frozen" but hasn't been officially canceled.

According to one source, "President da Silva has not signed any executive order, neither to cancel the ATMOS 2000 procurement nor to reopen the tender to select and negotiate another solution."

In a $210 million contract, the government chose Elbit in May to provide 36 ATMOS 2000 self-propelled howitzers.

According to the sources, the initiative is being unlocked by the Army head, Gen. Tomás Miguel Ribeiro Paiva, and the Minister of Defense, Mr. José Múcio Monteiro. In exchange for two artillery samples for testing, they aim to convince the left-leaning president to move forward with the agreement.

According to military authorities, selecting a different vendor would lengthen the timeline and negatively affect a number of nearby businesses who have contracts with Elbit to take part in the weapon's final assembly and part manufacturing.

A request for comment was not answered by representatives of the Army or the Brazilian Ministry of Defense.

The purchase of ATMOS 2000 marked the conclusion of a bidding procedure for the service's VBCOAP program—the Portuguese term for armored self-propelled howitzer. The other bidders on the contract were China's NORINCO with the SH-15, Slovak Konštrukta Defense plus the Czech Excalibur forming a partnership with Zuzana 2, and France's KNDS with the Caesar.

Meanwhile, the South American nation's order for 18 Atmos 2000, valued at $102 million, was placed early in 2023; this order has not been affected by the tensions between Colombia's administration and Israel, which are also generated by the Gaza war impact.