An Embraer Group company, Atech is recognized as a Brazilian “System House”, renowned for its expertise in the development and integration of Command and Control Systems, Embedded Systems, Cyber Defense, Integrated Surveillance, and Simulation and Training. The company also delivers critical solutions for Air Traffic Management, and Public Security.
AviationBizz : What has been the foundation of Atech’s long-term success and how has the company continued to thrive in an increasingly dynamic defense and technology market?
Fábio Cocchi : Atech’s sustained growth and recognition as a leading “System House” are built on three fundamental pillars: our deep technical expertise in developing and integrating complex, mission-critical systems; our unwavering commitment to security and reliability; and our strong relationship with national and international partners.
Our highly qualified workforce of over 500 professionals consists of technical experts, such as software developers, architects, and systems engineers, many of whom hold advanced postgraduate, master’s, or doctoral degrees. This massive concentration of intellectual capital allows us to handle high-complexity projects where failure is not an option. Furthermore, our ability to understand our customers’ specific operational environments and provide tailored, flexible, and vendor-agnostic solutions has established us as a highly trusted partner in both defense and civil aviation.
AB : As an Embraer Group company, how does Atech balance national technological sovereignty with the growing demands of the global aerospace and defense market?
FC : Being an owned subsidiary of the Embraer Group, aligned with Embraer Defense & Security, gives us a solid corporate structure, governance, and global reach. Historically, Atech was born out of a strategic vision to ensure Brazil’s technological autonomy in critical sectors, such as the national air traffic control system and advanced defense systems (working closely with the Brazilian Armed Forces).
We balance this national responsibility with international expansion by exporting this highly consolidated, field-proofed technology.
The systems we developed to protect and manage Brazil’s vast territory and airspace are inherently robust, scalable, and compliant with the highest global standards. This allows us to offer internationally competitive solutions to other nations – such as our recent projects in India, South Africa, and Mauritania – while keeping the core development, intellectual property, and strategic engineering capabilities anchored in Brazil.
AB : Looking back at Atech’s journey, what have been the defining milestones that shaped its identity as a leading Brazilian System House?
FC : Our history is defined by major challenges of global scale. The first and most structuring milestone was the development of Brazil’s nationwide Air Traffic Management system (including the core of the SAGITARIO and Skyflow/SIGMA systems), a partnership with the Brazilian Air Force (FAB/DECEA) that dates back over three decades.
A second milestone was our acquisition by Embraer, which consolidated our position as the defense and technology integration arm of the group. Thirdly, our active participation in strategic national programs of extreme complexity, such as developing the combat management and platform management systems for the “Brazilian Navy’s Tamandaré Class Fragatas”; providing tactical mission and simulation modules for the Prosub (Submarine Development Program); developing ground simulators for the F-39 Gripen fighter jet.
Our successful internationalization is also a milestone. We won highly competitive global bids, such as the air traffic flow management system for South Africa (ATNS) and India (AAI), and opened last year an office in Portugal, our first outside of Brazil, to deepen relationship with European companies and organizations.
Besides, our advanced research in Artificial Intelligence has marked our transition into a truly global player.
AB : Atech’s portfolio spans Air Traffic Management, Cybersecurity, C4I Systems, and Drone Traffic Management. Which technologies are currently driving the greatest impact for customers worldwide?
FC : In the modern landscape, data integration and predictive capabilities are driving the highest impact. In Air Traffic Management (ATM), our SkyFlow is an advanced Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) system that optimizes the balance between airspace demand and capacity, reducing delays and fuel consumption. Additionally, at Airspace World 2026, we introduced our SingleATM Platform, an open-architecture, service-based hosting solution for mission-critical systems that drastically reduces development, testing, and maintenance costs for Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs).
In defense and critical infrastructure protection, our integrated Command and Control (C4I) systems, which process data from multiple heterogeneous sensors and translate them into actionable operational intelligence in real time, are game changers. This includes our advanced counter-drone (C-UAS) solutions, designed to detect, track, and neutralize unauthorized unmanned aerial systems, protecting sensitive sites and airports from low-altitude physical and operational threats. Lastly, our embedded cybersecurity solutions – backed by our continuous participation in NATO’s prestigious Locked Shields cyber exercises – ensure that these highly critical architectures remain resilient against sophisticated digital threats.
AB : How does Atech ensure seamless integration between legacy systems and next-generation command, control, and surveillance platforms?
FC : This is the core essence of being a “System House”. We do not just build isolated software, we are system integrators. Our architecture is designed to be highly flexible and agnostic. We build middleware and platform layers capable of communicating with a myriad of communication protocols, radars, sensors, and armaments – regardless of the manufacturer or generation.
A prime example is our work on naval platforms or police operations involving unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). We can deploy a unified command platform that aggregates and commands drones from different manufacturers, translating different proprietary languages into a single, user-friendly interface. By utilizing open standards, service-oriented architecture (SOA), and microservices, we protect our customers’ previous investments in legacy infrastructure while enabling a smooth, low-risk transition to next-generation capabilities.
AB : With the rapid growth of unmanned aviation, how is Atech’s UTM platform helping organizations safely manage complex drone operations?
FC : Unmanned aviation is growing exponentially, creating a dense and complex low-altitude operational environment. Atech’s Unmanned Traffic Management Platform acts as an integrated digital hub designed to enable a safe, secure, and interoperable ecosystem for drones.
The platform focuses on managing drone traffic within civil airspace, establishing reliable digital connections between drone operators, civil aviation authorities, and security agencies. It automates flight authorization processes, provides real-time situational awareness, enforces geofencing to protect critical infrastructure, and prevents conflicts in the air. This technology is critical not only for safety but also for unlocking the economic potential of urban air mobility (UAM) and smart city logistics.
AB : How is Atech investing in research and development to create next-generation solutions that improve operational efficiency, situational awareness, and decision-making?
FC : We are heavily committed to an AI 360 strategy, embedding Artificial Intelligence across our solutions, development processes, and corporate operations. A major highlight is our partnership with the ICMC/USP (University of São Paulo), one of Latin America’s leading academic and research centers, to develop cutting-edge 4D Trajectory Prediction technology.
By training advanced Machine Learning models on massive historical datasets of real flights, the system learns to predict a flight’s trajectory across four dimensions: latitude, longitude, altitude, and time. While traditional physics-based kinematic models provide a highly reliable foundation under standard conditions, they are naturally limited when accounting for complex, dynamic variables such as operational habits, airport congestion, and sudden weather shifts. Our AI-driven system complements these traditional models by learning from massive historical datasets, allowing it to identify hidden patterns and anticipate traffic bottlenecks hours in advance.
AB : Atech has successfully delivered large-scale strategic projects in Brazil and abroad. What key business principles have contributed to this long-term success?
FC : Our first principle is customer-centric flexibility. We do not impose rigid, “one-size-fits-all” products. Instead, we adapt our systems to the specific requirements and sovereignty constraints of each nation.
Our second principle is uncompromising reliability. When dealing with systems that manage an entire country’s airspace or control a military fleet, there is zero room for error. We follow rigorous international certification standards and maintain strict corporate governance.
Third, we prioritize intellectual property and technology transfer. When we work with international governments, we believe in building collaborative partnerships, fostering local knowledge, and ensuring that our clients retain full command over their critical systems.
AB : How does the company approach partnerships with governments, defense organizations, and aviation authorities when implementing complex technology programs?
FC : We treat these relationships as long-term strategic alliances, not mere transactional vendor agreements. Because these projects involve national security and public infrastructure, they often span decades. We work closely with organizations such as Brazil’s DECEA, the Airport Authority of India, and South Africa’s ATNS.
We engage with them from the very early stages of operational conception, helping to design system architectures that can evolve over time. We also emphasize human-centric design; our systems are built to assist, not replace humans, ensuring they have the highest possible situational awareness to make split-second decisions safely.
AB : How do you view the increasing adoption of AI, automation, and digital ecosystems within the global air traffic management and defense sectors?
FC : We view it as an inevitable and highly positive evolution. The sheer volume of data generated by modern aircraft, digital radars, and satellite sensors is beyond the capacity of manual human processing. AI and automation are essential to filter this noise, detect anomalies, and suggest optimal courses of action.
However, in our sectors, automation must always be collaborative. We advocate for “human-in-the-loop” systems. The AI should act as an incredibly powerful assistant – doing the heavy lifting of calculating trajectories, predicting weather impacts, and scanning for cyber threats – while leaving the final, high-consequence decisions to the human specialist.
AB : Atech is involved in advanced research initiatives, including AI-driven trajectory prediction technologies. How do such R&D projects influence the future of aviation and defense operations?
FC : They fundamentally shift the paradigm from reactive to proactive operations. Today, if an airport becomes congested due to a sudden storm, air traffic control reacts by putting incoming planes into holding patterns or diverting them, which causes a cascade of delays and wastes fuel.
With our AI-driven 4D trajectory prediction, the system can foresee a bottleneck hours before the aircraft even take off. Air traffic management can then proactively adjust departure times and flight speeds, ensuring a smooth, continuous flow. In defense, this level of predictive capability translates into superior situational awareness, allowing commanders to anticipate threats and coordinate tactical assets with unprecedented precision.
AB : What are the biggest opportunities and challenges shaping the future growth of the global aerospace, defense, and air navigation industries?
FC : The biggest opportunity is the modernization wave driven by the digital transition and sustainability targets. Nations are actively investing in technology to make flight routes more direct, reducing carbon emissions and fuel costs.
The biggest challenge is the sheer complexity of integrating new players – specifically drone fleets, eVTOLs and commercial space launches – into an already crowded and highly regulated airspace. Managing this hybrid, ultra-dense airspace without compromising the historical safety levels of commercial aviation is the defining challenge of our generation.
AB : How do you foresee the evolution of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and unmanned aviation influencing future infrastructure and regulatory frameworks worldwide?
FC : AAM requires a complete rethinking of urban infrastructure and regulatory frameworks. We will see the birth of vertiports in major cities, which will require specialized, localized micro-weather forecasting and high-precision digital navigation.
Regulatory bodies will have to transition from manual, voice-based traffic control to automated, digital, and collaborative flight approvals (UTM). Airspace will become dynamic, with temporary digital “corridors” opening and closing in real time to accommodate drone deliveries or passenger eVTOLs. Atech is actively working on the technologies that will bridge this gap, ensuring that UTM and traditional ATM systems can safely co-exist.
AB : In your opinion, which emerging regions present the strongest growth potential for advanced technology providers such as Atech?
FC : We see immense potential in Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America. These regions are experiencing rapid economic growth, rising urban populations, and a corresponding increase in air travel and logistics demand. Many countries in these regions are looking to modernize their critical infrastructure or build new, state-of-the-art systems from scratch, without the burden of legacy constraints.
As we offer highly competitive, state-of-the-art technology backed by the global solidity of the Embraer Group, combined with our flexible and collaborative approach to technology transfer, we are uniquely positioned to serve as the solutions partner to improve these emerging markets.
AB : Beyond technological innovation, how does Atech contribute to public safety, critical infrastructure protection, and sustainable development initiatives?
FC : Public safety and critical infrastructure protection are at the very core of our business portfolio. Our systems protect national land and maritime borders, manage critical platform and combat systems for naval fleets, support tactical pilot training, and keep millions of passengers safe in the skies every day.
In terms of sustainability, our technology has a direct, positive environmental impact. By optimizing air traffic flow with our SkyFlow systems, and incorporating advanced AI for 4D trajectory predictions, we help airlines fly shorter, more precise routes. This dramatically reduces unnecessary fuel burning and holding times, preventing tons of CO2 emissions from entering the atmosphere.
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