Brazil’s announcement it will buy Rafale in a deal for France aiding in development and buying the KC-390 tanker/transport has taken an interesting turn: the defense ministry says the FX-2 program isn’t closed.

Although Brazilian president said talks to buy 36 Rafales were now underway, the defense ministry says it is continuing with its source selection process for the FX-2 and talks with all three competitors, Dassault, Saab, and Boeing, will proceed. The Brazilian air force never got to submit its technical evaluation.

It is perhaps difficult to believe that at this point the Boeing F/A-18E/F and Saab Gripen could still snag the program, but who knows. Moreover, it does put a blight on the selection process.

I also should retract my statement from yesterday that the selection process appeared to have been run smoothly. When I was in Brazil last week, officials there told me the source selection was running according to plan and that most were impressed with the rigor of the process. Lula, apparently, decided to abort that process with his statements in the meeting with his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Rafale may still come out ahead in the technical assessment, of course, and it can’t be doubted that France has been very industrious in trying to sway Brazil with an attractive package of technology transfer promises.

That all makes Lula’s decision not to let the source selection process play out all the more bizarre.

Perhaps there is some justice in the turn of events. In the series of Rafale losses, France was always quick to blame nefarious motives for why their candidate failed to prevail. This time, they may win, but the dark cloud will be hanging over Rafale.