For over fifty years, Brazilian naval officers have occupied an unassuming office at 170 Upper Richmond Road, conducting business that would surprise most Putney residents walking past. The Brazilian Naval Commission in Europe isn’t commanding ships or training sailors. It’s shopping.
From this suburban outpost, a small team procures weapons systems, submarines, missiles and spare parts across a territory spanning Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Oceania and most of Asia. The deals flowing through this quiet corner of SW15 run into hundreds of millions of pounds.
The incongruity is worth enjoying: a naval procurement office perched on the South Circular, up a hill from the Thames, in a neighbourhood famous for rowing clubs rather than warships.
The flagship flew from Putney to Rio
The commission’s most spectacular transaction: in 2018, Brazil purchased HMS Ocean, the Royal Navy’s former flagship helicopter carrier, for £84 million. The 21,578-tonne vessel now serves as Brazil’s naval flagship, renamed NAM Atlântico.
Last year brought an even larger acquisition. Brazil signed a contract for HMS Bulwark, one of the Royal Navy’s amphibious assault ships, at the DSEI defence exhibition in London. It’s currently being refurbished in Plymouth before transfer in 2026.
A suburban office handling billion-pound business
The BNCE was formally established on 29 October 1971 by Brazilian Decree 69.442, consolidating three previous oversight commissions that had supervised submarine construction in England, minesweepers in Germany and frigates in Britain. But Brazilian naval representation in London predates this by decades: a “Brazilian Commission” received the dreadnought Minas Geraes from Armstrong Whitworth in Newcastle back in 1910.
Today’s commission operates as a department of the Brazilian Embassy but reports directly to the General Secretariat of the Brazilian Navy. Its mission extends beyond ship purchases. It manages procurement across five continents, gathers technical intelligence on military technology developments, supports Brazilian naval officers on courses or in transit, represents Brazil at the International Maritime Organization in London, and promotes Brazilian defence manufacturers seeking European partners.
The geographic scope is remarkable. From Putney, the commission manages procurement not just in Europe but across the Middle East, Africa, Oceania and Asia (excluding Japan, China and Korea, which fall under different arrangements). A parallel commission in Washington DC handles the Americas.
UK defence companies and Brazil’s deep relationship
The relationship between British defence manufacturers and Brazil runs surprisingly deep. BAE Systems has supplied Brazilian forces since the 1950s. MBDA UK provides missile systems for Brazilian frigates and fighter jets. The biggest recent deal: in December 2025, Brazil selected MBDA’s Land Ceptor air defence system in a contract reportedly worth around $1 billion.
Between 2015 and 2024, the UK approved £850 million in defence export licences to Brazil, according to Campaign Against Arms Trade analysis of government data. The business relationship extends from aircraft carriers to engine components.
The peculiar geography of a landlocked naval office
Why Putney? No official explanation exists, but the irony deserves some quick attention.
The Thames at Putney marks one of the river’s historic shallow points. The name “Putney” derives from Anglo-Saxon Puttan hythe (“Putta’s landing place”), reflecting its ancient use as a crossing point when the river ran shallow enough to ford. The 1729 Fulham Bridge (later Putney Bridge) was the only crossing between London Bridge and Kingston for 1,700 years, a span of nearly twelve miles, precisely because the river was navigable here.
Today, Brazilian naval officers work up the hill from one of the world’s most famous rowing stretches. The Championship Course from Putney to Mortlake has hosted the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race since 1845, and rowing clubs cluster along the embankment.
Yet the BNCE sits on Upper Richmond Road, the South Circular, climbing away from all that water. The procurement officers who negotiate submarine contracts and missile systems work within walking distance of boathouses but considerably further from anything that might float a frigate.
From dreadnoughts to submarines
The UK-Brazil naval relationship stretches back over a century. In the early 1900s, Brazil sparked the South American Dreadnought Race by ordering massive battleships from British yards. At their 1910 commissioning, only Britain and the United States had comparable vessels.
The relationship has evolved since: frigates in the 1970s and 90s, helicopters, radar systems, and now missile technology. Brazil’s four new Tamandaré-class frigates, currently under construction, will carry British-made Sea Ceptor missiles.
Brazil’s naval strategy centres on protecting the “Blue Amazon”: 5.7 million square kilometres of South Atlantic waters rich in oil reserves, fisheries and strategic sea lanes.
Fifty-three years in Putney and counting
The BNCE celebrated its 53rd anniversary in 2024, having operated from Putney longer than most residents have lived in the borough.
The next time you walk past 170 Upper Richmond Road, remember: behind those doors, someone might be negotiating for an aircraft carrier.
This is the first in what will likely be a highly irregular but never uninteresting rundown of things that exist in Putney that you’ve probably never realised or thought about.
Very interesting thank you -often wondered what that building is for. Jubilee House for the next article?
Yes, Jubilee House – that’s an interesting location. We were thinking Craigmyle House and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta next. Other suggestions more than welcome…