produced in Brazil, the Saab Gripen E model, will be officially presented this Wednesday (25), almost three years after the inauguration of its joint production line between the Swedish manufacturer and its local partner, .
With this, the country joins 14 others that manufacture, with different degrees of technological autonomy, these devices that exceed the speed of sound – 1,225 km/h at sea level.
The Brazilian Gripen must be displayed to the president (PT) and other authorities at the Embraer factory in Gavião Peixoto (300 km northwest of São Paulo). Its assembly was completed after more than a year of continuous working hours.
Of the 36 Gripen purchased by the country in 2014, one year after its selection, 15 should be completed in the unit. At FAB, the plane has the designation F-39.
Brazil even manufactures parts of the fuselage: as in commercial aviation, the knowledge lies in the integration of systems and the absorption of technologies, which involved 60 programs with various companies.
It is a milestone in a long and expensive process, leading up to the choice of the FAB’s new standard fighter in 2013. According to data from the Senate’s budget execution monitoring program, from 2014 to date the Gripen has consumed R$16.75 billion in corrected values.
Its initial contract, in Swedish krona and also deflated, is today equivalent to R$29.5 billion. In other words, with 11 of the 36 planes delivered so far, 57% of the original budget has already been spent.
This includes the original contract, due to the increase in expenses that occur in this type of development: the current Gripen is the third generation of the aircraft, essentially a new product. According to the FAB, by 2025 the extra amount would be enough to buy six more planes.
An analysis of the payment timeline shows a high execution rate, which seems to contradict the military’s budgetary anemia.
This can be explained by the amendments, and it remains to be seen whether there will be money to maintain the program with the current schedule — in 2025, R$1.37 billion of the authorized R$1.83 billion was paid. The project is already eight years behind schedule: according to the initial forecast, all planes would be flying in 2024, and the most recent estimate targets 2032.
From a technological point of view, it is a major advance, comparable to what Embraer achieved in the 1980s, when it created the AMX attack plane, and learned how to produce planes with jet engines.
The knowledge was vital for the development of the ERJ-145 regional jet, which lifted the company off the ground after the crisis that led to its privatization in 1994.
Now, the 350 Brazilian engineers and technicians who were trained in Sweden, a large part of the company but not only, are qualified to integrate supersonic technologies, operate complex software and electronic warfare systems.
Embraer was also central in the design of the two-seater version, the F, in the Nordic country. Originally, it was supposed to be done in Brazil, but the tight schedule and costs forced a change of plans.
The transfer is broad, but not total, as in any business of this type in the world. Some components of the plane require specific licenses from their manufacturers that prevent copying, as in the case of the American GE engine that powers the fighter.
That said, Gripen is a very advanced model from a data fusion point of view, competing with other fighters and radar planes such as the Embraer R-99. The FAB has access to its systems, unlike its rivals, the French Dassault Rafale and the American Boeing F/A-18.
Today, it is the most advanced fighter in Latin America. Brazil only operates one other supersonic, the old American F-5M which, despite being modernized, is a project that goes back to the 1950s and was purchased in the 1970s.
Since the beginning of the year, after missile launch tests and cannon fire, Gripen began to occupy its primary role: defending the center of power from the Anápolis (GO) base, 150 km from Brasília.
which is still in the testing campaign, arrived in the country in 2020. The model made in Brazil should fly in the coming weeks, with a delay of a few months
In addition to producing seven more planes, Gavião Peixoto also targets the foreign market. Gripen’s victory in a competition in Colombia leaves the factory responsible for the 17 fighters ordered.
A setback occurred last week, when Peru abandoned the initial idea of purchasing the Swedish model and chose the American F-16. But the decision was made to leave his position in July, so the market expects the game to still be open.
Scale is essential, although Saab says that the Gripen program in Brazil will keep the planes in the air until 2060. Furthermore, the FAB is still negotiating, although there is no money for that, the purchase of at least a second batch.
Also on the table, but with great difficulty due to Ukraine’s demand for fighters in negotiations with Stockholm in the context of the Russian invasion, are 12 planes from the previous generation of Gripen, the C/D.
Sweden has 96 of these models. The FAB’s problem is that the AMXs it operates in Santa Maria (RS) and the second-hand American military F-16s to fulfill the role are out of date, as a way of speeding up negotiations.
Ultimately, the Gripen will replace, in addition to the 23 AMX, the remaining 40 F-5s in the fleet. With national construction, Brazil joins the USA, Russia, China, France, Sweden, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Italy, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Japan and South Korea.
The list includes countries that master complete manufacturing and design cycles, including engine construction, to those that assemble supersonic aircraft under license.
Gustavo Patu collaborated
The journalist traveled at the invitation of Saab
