SANTIAGO - Brazil has sent 48 military companies to the aerospace show in Chile to boost military product export amid an unfavorable economic prospect.

They are all private companies, Admiral Carlos Alfonso Pierantoni, executive vice president of the Brazilian Association of Manufacturers of Materials for Defense and Security told Xinhua.

"Each of the companies takes their own decisions and enters the military market, albeit under the direction of the Ministry of Defense," he said.

Pierantoni said Brazil was undergoing an economic crisis and the exports of military products provided a way for the sector to recuperate.

He said the Brazilian military industry wanted to show South America that it had products for export to its neighbors.

"We have military hardware already being used in all the armies of Latin America, (and) we are open to expanding our collaboration with them," he added.

The biennial FIDAE aerospace show, which opened on Tuesday and ends on April 3, has attracted over 550 companies from 58 countries this year.