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Saab
will roll out the first Gripen E version at Linkoping, Sweden on May 18, said
Richard Smith, the company’s head of marketing and sales for the combat
aircraft. In a bullish briefing at the Singapore Airshow last week, Smith said
that thanks to the 60 new-build E/F jets for Sweden, plus the Brazilian Gripen
order and other surveillance and submarine programs, the Swedish company’s
backlog was at an all-time high of $13.5 billion. The Gripen thus has a
guaranteed long-term future, and the sales goal was “at least 300 more,” Smith
said.
Smith
described the “huge technical transfer program” associated with the Brazilian
acquisition of Gripen. This includes 50 key projects in four categories, and is
an expanded version of the model used in South Africa’s Gripen deal. Last
October, the first 48 of an eventual 350 Brazilian engineers arrived in Sweden
to work on the project. Fifteen of the expected 36 Gripens to be acquired by
Brazil will be built by Embraer at a Development Center to be established at
Gaviao Peixato. The center will also help develop the two-seat Gripen F and
integrate weapons. There had been no slow-down of the Brazilian program, despite
that country’s recent economic difficulties, Smith told AIN.
Preliminary design of a Sea Gripen version had been completed, with a potential
Brazilian requirement in mind, Smith said. “Now we must do a market analysis,”
he added. Read
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