Swedish defense leaders push Saab’s Gripen offer for
Finland
15 hours ago
The Finnish race is one of two big-ticket aircraft
competitions in Europe — Switzerland being the other — where major vendors from
both sides of the Atlantic are jockeying for position. Finland has requested
final offers by the end of April from Airbus for the Eurofighter; Dassault for
the Rafale; Boeing for the Super Hornet; Lockheed Martin for the F-35; and Saab
for the Gripen E/F.
Helsinki has budgeted roughly $12 billion for the program.
Swedish Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist said the
aircraft competition comes during a “deteriorating security situation” around
the Baltic Sea, which he blamed on Russian military flexing. He framed greater
defense cooperation among the Scandinavian countries as a prerequisite for
standing up to Moscow’s “aggressive moves.”
“Air defense is a vital part of this,” Hultqvist said during an online press conference on Feb. 16.
Brig. Gen. Anders Persson, the Swedish deputy chief of the Air Force, zeroed in on Sweden and Finland as potential points of incursion for Russian forces. Adversarial airplanes could enter their airspace in large numbers, benefitting from the countries’ long northeast orientation, he said.
In such a case, the more exposed Finnish air fleet
could fall back west on bases in neighboring Sweden, a feat that would be more
easily accomplished if both countries had the Gripen, Persson argued.
“We’ll be like one air force with two commanders,” he
said.
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