PARIS: Saab cuts metal on first Gripen E test aircraft
Saab has cut metal on its first of three dedicated test examples of the Gripen E fighter, and flown the type's production-standard active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar for the first time in its current two-seat demonstrator.
Speaking at the Paris air show on 19 June, Saab's head of aeronautics Lennart Sindahl said the metal-cutting milestone was achieved recently at the company's Linkoping site in Sweden, and involved the radar bulkhead for an aircraft designated as JAS 39-8. This is due to make its flight debut in 2015, followed by two more E-model test aircraft.
Demonstration-phase work using a modified D-model trainer in early June advanced into a fifth phase of activity, with the aircraft now flying with a digital head-up display, new infrared search and track sensor and Selex ES-05 Raven AESA array installed.
"We have done the first flights in Phase 5, and this aircraft is doing a really great job in development," Sindahl says. "We are well ahead, with all of the [Gripen E] systems now in the air. I feel very confident in relation to the risk on this programme."
Deliveries of the new-generation Gripen are scheduled to start in 2018. Sweden has committed to buying 60 of the advanced version, with Switzerland also in the advanced phase of approving as 22-aircraft deal.
Meanwhile, Sindahl says Saab has already started on the path of studying a capability to use the Gripen E in an optionally-manned configuration. One mission example for the system could see it perform long-range reconnaissance flights beyond the range possible using a crewed fighter, due to the need to provide combat search and rescue helicopter cover for its pilot.
"We have a lot of ideas, but we don't want to start a journey on our own. We need to have a customer on board and to support us in designing this in the best possible way."
Speaking at the Paris air show on 19 June, Saab's head of aeronautics Lennart Sindahl said the metal-cutting milestone was achieved recently at the company's Linkoping site in Sweden, and involved the radar bulkhead for an aircraft designated as JAS 39-8. This is due to make its flight debut in 2015, followed by two more E-model test aircraft.
Demonstration-phase work using a modified D-model trainer in early June advanced into a fifth phase of activity, with the aircraft now flying with a digital head-up display, new infrared search and track sensor and Selex ES-05 Raven AESA array installed.
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"We have done the first flights in Phase 5, and this aircraft is doing a really great job in development," Sindahl says. "We are well ahead, with all of the [Gripen E] systems now in the air. I feel very confident in relation to the risk on this programme."
Deliveries of the new-generation Gripen are scheduled to start in 2018. Sweden has committed to buying 60 of the advanced version, with Switzerland also in the advanced phase of approving as 22-aircraft deal.
Meanwhile, Sindahl says Saab has already started on the path of studying a capability to use the Gripen E in an optionally-manned configuration. One mission example for the system could see it perform long-range reconnaissance flights beyond the range possible using a crewed fighter, due to the need to provide combat search and rescue helicopter cover for its pilot.
"We have a lot of ideas, but we don't want to start a journey on our own. We need to have a customer on board and to support us in designing this in the best possible way."
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