After years of debate, the government of the Swedish Saab Gripen e/F as its new combat plane. The decision will transform Brazil, which also opted for the model in 2014 and should see the country fly this year, an exporter of supersonic fighters in the future.
The announcement of the choice was made by the X by the president, who highlighted the fact that Gripen was in operation in Brazil. “This can generate industrial benefits for Brazil, especially in production, maintenance, training and logistics,” said SAAB’s president, Micael Johansson on Thursday (3).
On Tuesday (1) in Rio, where he participated in the Military Lad Military Fair, Johansson had said he was “on his way to a South American capital”. According to him, the idea is to use the assembly line implemented by Saab at the factory of Em Gavião Peixoto (SP) to provide aircraft in the region.
The expansion of the Brazilian Center aims to unburden the line in, which already foresees the increase of demand from both the Swedish government and other countries due to the new geopolitical configuration of the continent, threatening to leave Europeans alone, which led to advertisements followed by increased military spending.
Business numbers are not closed yet, but Colombia wants 16 fighters to replace its ancient Israeli supersonic Kfir, whose design was stolen by the intelligence of Tel Aviv of the French model Mirage-5 when Paris decided to veto the sale of the Jewish state fighter in the 1970s.
Today, it operates about 10 of the original 24 kfir. Its most capable models are the Brazilians A-29 Super Tucano, of which have 24 units. The Saab still aims at a contract, which is under discussion.
In Colombia, the American model F-16 was defeated. and Donald Trump, who threatened the country with raising import tariffs when Andeans refused to receive deported illegal immigrants, weighed in the choice of Swedes. It was also in the match, seen as a favorite by the military of the country, the Frenchman Dassault Rafale.
For Saab, it is an important victory, which followed the choice of the flu to eliminate the American F-35 from the list of choices in Portugal, increasing the Swedish chances. Again, the Portuguese are annoyed by the hostile policy of the White House before Europe and the Military Alliance.
The choice also gives a more guarantee to the technological project of the Brazilian Gripen, which drank to see the being underused in the long run. The more customers, the more aircraft, the more maintenance and the like.
They should be favored, in addition to Embraer, the more than 60 Brazilian companies involved in the project. The hunt, of course, will be Swedish, but will have a large degree of nationalization and the likely “Made in Brazil” seal, increasing the export agenda with high added value.
In addition, the Brazilian Air Force will be in a position to help with the training of Colombian pilots. So far, 14 Brazilian airmen are able to fly the eight Gripen already delivered to the FAB, and one of them was under Swedish instruction.
In the Brazilian project, 15 of the 36 planes. Due to the history of budgetary hiccups in the early years of the partnership, as well as natural issues of the development of a new plane model, the fleet that should be complete in mid -decade should only be finalized near 2030.
Brazil now wants to buy 14 more fighters, in the form of an additive in the original contract, something in the house of $ 4 billion. Discussions are stopped in practice, but they have advanced politically, with the announcing Embraer C-390 acquisition-the parts do not use the term married, but in practice this is the intention.
In the Colombian case, negotiated compensation is of another nature. “There will be a social investment consisting of a solar panel factory, installation of drinking water and restoration of state -of -the -art medical equipment,” said Petro.
