Engesa

Engesa
Engenheiros Especializados S.A.
Company typeSociedade Anônima
IndustryDefence; automotive, oil
Founded1958
FounderJosé Luiz Whitaker Ribeiro
Defunct1993
FateBankrupt
HeadquartersSão Paulo, Brazil[1]
Barueri, Brazil
(after 1985)[2]
ProductsCivilian and military vehicles
Number of employees
10,000 (June 1987)[3]
11,000[4]

Engesa (Engenheiros Especializados S.A.) was a Brazilian company in the oil and later automotive and military sectors founded in 1958. In the 70s and 80s it established itself as one of the "big three" in Brazil's arms industry, alongside Avibras and Embraer. It manufactured 6,818 land military vehicles such as the EE-25 truck and the EE-9 Cascavel and EE-11 Urutu armored vehicles, which it sold to Brazil and 18 other countries, and are still used in conflicts today. Its technological peak was the prototypes of the EE-T1 Osório main battle tank. Its founder, José Luiz Whitaker Ribeiro, was called the "civil armaments czar". In the civilian market, it became known with its Engesa 4 jeep. It went into decline at the end of the 80s as a result of mismanagement and a hostile internal and international environment, going bankrupt in 1993.