MILAN — Saab is rapidly exploring ways to expand its Gripen production rates, with a major deal for up to 150 aircraft with Ukraine potentially being finalized this year, according to company head Micael Johansson — though Sweden’s top defense official said challenges remain.
In an interview with Swedish public broadcaster SVT last week, Johansson stated that while an agreement to deliver a significant number of Gripen fighter jets to Kyiv typically takes a few months, he hopes it will be completed this year.
In October, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the Saab hub in Linköping, Sweden. During his trip, he signed a long-term letter of intent with the Swedish government to deepen air defense cooperation, which could include the export of 100 to 150 Gripen E jets.
This week, another top Ukrainian official, Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, travelled to Sweden and said today that Kyiv was “ready,” after having developed its “own plan on how to finance this project.” He did not disclose details.
However, at the same press conference, Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson suggested there remain challenges.
“What we can say is that our two teams at our ministry has been working extremely close and effective during the last couple of months, and lots of progress has been made on sorting out such thing as training, production, capacity, financing and so forth,” he said. “So I’m glad we’re making progress and and hopefully also we can … there’s an interest both on Sweden and and Ukraine to to be able to provide the Ukrainians with the Gripen system, which is very well adapted to the Ukrainian needs due to everything from the dispersed system to the way that you have a strong electronic warfare component and so forth.”
Mattias Rådström, head of media relations for Saab, told Breaking Defense that while the company defers timetable questions to Swedish authorities, it remains committed to collaborating with its Ukrainian partners to “achieve a successful outcome.”
“We’re exploring a number of options to expand Gripen production capacity as global demand grows — Saab, together with its partners, will be ready to deliver based on customers’ needs defined by the contract,” Rådström said in an email statement.
Aeronautics currently represent approximately SEK 82.2 billion ($8.9 billion) of Saab’s overall order backlog, which stands at SEK 274 billion ($29.8 billion). The company’s CFO, Anna Wijkander, shared these figures during the Q1 results presentation on April 23.
During the performance update, Johansson further said that Saab is working toward a production rate of 20 to 30 aircraft per year and that, based on current and future orders, attaining the 20-unit milestone annually would be achievable in roughly one year.
While a second assembly plant is operational in Brazil, Saab representatives have also previously proposed setting up an additional facility in Canada to serve export orders, as Ottawa weighs sticking with a planned F-35 fighter jet buy or potentially operating a mixed fleet with Gripen aircraft.
Jonas Olsson contributed reporting from Stockholm.
