"It was maybe 50,000 pills total. With all due respect, that's nothing," the far-right president said at a meeting with Evangelical Christian ministers at the presidential palace, two days after revelations the armed forces had purchased a sizeable order of sildenafil, the active ingredient in the erectile-dysfunction drug.

"Obviously, that's mostly for retirees and inactive service members," he added, repeating the defense ministry's explanation that the drug would in fact be used by the military to treat high blood pressure and rheumatism.

Bolsonaro, a former army captain, did not comment on the military's latest titter-provoking episode: news on Tuesday that it had also acquired 60 penile implants.

But he attacked the media for swelling the whole thing out of proportion.

"We take abuse every day from a press that acts in very bad faith and is ignorant on the matter," he said.

The purchases were revealed by an opposition lawmaker who obtained the details through a freedom of information request.

They triggered no shortage of jokes on social media, where bemused users shared drawings of tanks with limp cannon and cracks about upping the military's morale.