Saab Sees Potential Canada Production Line Serving Other Gripen Buyers

SINGAPORE—Saab is looking at a potential Canadian Gripen E/F production line also serving other buyers should it convince Ottawa to buy the single-engine fighter.

“We need to ramp up to a level where it's not only for Canada,” said Mikael Franzén, Saab's chief marketing officer for Gripen. “We see that [the line] will produce for export as well,” he told reporters Feb. 4 during the Singapore Airshow.

The first Canadian Gripens would be built in Sweden, he said, with the rest assembled in Canada.

Saab has for months said it is looking at ways to lift Gripen output given strong order intake and ongoing sales campaigns. Franzén said the current target is to get production to 36 aircraft per year, which requires expansion beyond the existing lines in Sweden and Brazil.

Canada’s strong aerospace heritage could be a boost to Saab as it looks to scale up production more broadly by cementing industrial ties needed beyond that program, Franzén said.

Saab is largely responding to questions Ottawa is asking as part of a defense review, he said, as it looks to convince Canada to embrace the concept of operating a mixed fleet of Gripens and F-35s.

“I don't see that the F-35 would be replaced by Gripens,” Franzén said. “I think there are Gripen strengths that the F-35 doesn’t have and F-35 strengths that Gripen doesn’t have,” he added, pointing to the Swedish aircraft’s high availability rates and relative ease of adaptation. Adding Gripen to the F-35 fleet would add combat mass that a single type-model fleet would not offer, he argued.

Canada is potentially the largest Gripen prospect, but Saab is campaigning elsewhere. Portugal, for instance, is looking at replacing its Lockheed Martin F-16s. Like Canada, the country has aerospace industrial heritage Saab would be keen to tap to bolster its supply chain, Franzén said.

Other prospects are in Austria, which is due to issue a request for information this year for its Eurofighter Typhoon replacement, though a type-selection is still some years off. Saab is also eying a potential Gripen opportunity in Ireland.

Peru and the Philippines are more near-term prospects. Manila is looking at buying around 40 fighters either in one or two batches. The country also has interest in command-and-control technology and airborne early warning capability. Those projects are currently still run separately but may be combined.

Peru’s campaign for 24 new fighters is in the final stage, Franzén indicated.

Saab this year also expects to commence talks with Thailand for two more batches of Gripen Es to add to the four Bangkok agreed to buy last year. The contract for those is not slated for award this year, he said, but is being planned to ensure smooth aircraft delivery. The first Thai Gripen E is due for delivery in 2029.