According to wikipedia, Saab has produced 280 jets in 30 years. A single order in the magnitude of 100+ jets is absolutely massive.
Also massive L as in Lockheed Martin lol
Seriously good that this will help bring independence from US.
Seriously good that this will help bring independence from US.
I think the Gripen is a good fit for Ukraine, but for true independence from the US, we have to find a European engine for it. The US used the American engine of it before to exert pressure.
Kind of ironic that a SAAB plane doesn’t have its own SAAB engine
Even ‘worse’:
Following the typical Swedish approach of ‘everybody gets a piece’, the engine of the SAAB came from Volvo…! ;)
That engine was based on an American though and the new one of the modern variants is afaik directly American.
It’s an American design, but it’s built and modified in Sweden.
The original RM12 of the early versions, yea. Although I don’t know whether the US also have any leverage over that product since it is a derivative of the GE F404. For the new Gripen versions, SAAB unfortunately uses the GE F414 directly.
TIL. Thanks.
Volvo made aircraft engines for SAAB at one point. It makes sense when you account for the size of Sweden and the complexity of an aircraft that it’s a big challenge for one business or nation to build alone.
We do have rolls royce of course… They should be able to cook something up. And CFM is half French.
We have the Eurojet EJ200, a European development for the Eurofighter Typhoon. Maybe one of them could be a domestic replacement for the new Gripen versions.
Good thing Germany orders F35 from US again instead of supporting an european solution!
Only a small subfleet to carry the nuclear weapons, the main fighter jet will be a European / international non American one.
If this is true then it’s amazing!
