Brazil Chooses Swedish Gripen NG Fighters Over Rafale and F-18

Brazil awarded a $4.5 billion contract to  Swedish Saab  to replace its aging fleet of fighter jets, a surprise coup for the Swedish company after news of U.S. spying on Brazilians helped derail Boeing's chances for the deal.

The contract, negotiated over the course of three presidencies, will supply Brazil's air force with 36 new Gripen NG fighters by 2020. Aside from the cost of the jets themselves, the agreement is expected to generate billions of additional dollars in future supply and service contracts.

Saab did not immediately comment on the purchase. In addition to Chicago-based Boeing Co With its F-18 Offer and France's Dassault Aviation SA with its Rafale was a contender for the contract.

The timing of the announcement, after more than a decade of off-and-on negotiations, appeared to catch the companies involved by surprise. Even Juniti Saito, Brazil's top air force commander, said on Wednesday that he only heard of the decision a day earlier in a meeting with President Dilma Rousseff.

Brazilian officials said the deal, one of the most coveted emerging-market defense contracts, went to Saab because it provided the most affordable option for the new jets, as well as the best conditions for technology transfer to local partners.

The choice, Defense Minister Celso Amorim said, "took into account performance, the effective transfer of technology and costs - not just of acquisition but of maintenance."
Until earlier this year, Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet had been considered the front runner. But revelations of spying by the U.S. National Security Agency in Brazil, including personal communication by Rousseff, led Brazil to believe it could not trust a U.S. company.
"The NSA problem ruined it for the Americans," a Brazilian government source said on condition of anonymity.

Saab Targets Smaller Gripen Orders After Losing Indian MRCA

Swedish maker of the Gripen jet fighter, is focusing on winning smaller orders from as many as nine countries after being excluded from India’s military program, Chief Executive Officer Hakan Buskhe said.

Saab sees potential for Gripen orders in Brazil, Romania, Croatia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Hungary and the Czech Republic, Buskhe said in an interview today. Hungary and the Czech Republic are existing customers that may expand their orders, he said.

“We feel good about the Gripen program, it has lots of potential,” Buskhe said, adding that it “remains a profitable business.”

India’s defense ministry informed Saab April 27 that the Gripen hadn’t been shortlisted for its plan to buy 126 jets.

JAS-39 Gripen At Aero-India 2011

Brazil's Military Future Multi-Billion-Dollar Jet Fighter Deal

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won't decide on the future partner for Brazil's military aircraft industry in a deal that involves a multibillion-dollar jet fighter purchase from the winning bidder.
 Instead Lula is leaving the decision to his successor, President-elect Dilma Rousseff, who takes office Jan. 1, Lula told official television station TV Brasil.



The United States, France and Sweden are in the race to win a contract that includes an option to buy another 100 jets from the successful supplier over the coming decades.

Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf weighed in to support of SAAB's Grippen fighter, French President Nicholas Sarkozy openly canvassed for Dassault's Rafale and White House support behind Boeing's F-18 fighter was widely reported in Brazil.

Lula indicated he favored buying Rafale as France offered the best technology transfer deal and expressed concern the U.S. Congress might block or restrict any Boeing deal. Grippen won support from Brazil's military strategists because of its lower cost. Swedish lobbyists also took mileage out of Queen Silvia's Latin American connection as the offspring of a German father and Brazilian mother.

The Future Of Indian Air Force – MMRCA

  The Indian Air Force’s Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition is nearing completion. Indian Air Chief Marshal PV Naik recently said that the contract for supplying 126 MMRCA fighters to the IAF will be signed soon.

On July, 2010, IAF completed its evaluation report of the field trials conducted for six global fighters contending for the MMRCA deal.

The evaluation report was then submitted to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) whereon it will be discussed by the Cabinet Committee on Security, after which the process of awarding the contract would be initiated. Once the MoD finalises the shortlisted contenders, the complex process of negotiations will begin leading to the awarding of the deal to the winner.

India's $10.4 billion tender to acquire 126 fighter aircraft

India's planned multi-billion dollar aircraft deal is the biggest contract ever since the 1990s. In 2001, IAF sent out its request for information (RFI) for the 126 fighters. After delays lasting almost 2 years beyond the planned December 2005 issue date, the Ministry of Defence finally announced a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) on August 2007.

Six global fighters – Lockheed Martin's F-16 Super Viper, Eurofighter's Typhoon, Russian United Aircraft Corporation's Mikoyan MiG-35, France's Dassault Aviation's Rafale, Swedish SAAB's Gripen and Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet – had submitted their bids in response to it.

According to reports, the Indian government will be buying the first 18 aircraft directly from the manufacturer. The remaining fighters will be built under licence with a transfer of technology (ToT) by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) based in Bangalore, India.

The delivery will start within 36 months of contract signing and will be completed 48 months later.

SAAB Optimistic About MMRCA

As India's biggest defence contract of $ 10 billion to acquire 126 (MMRCA) nears final stages, the lone Swedish contender is optimistic of making it to the downlist.

  

  Expressing optimism, SAAB executives said that their India campaign was enthusing them to enter the lucrative fighter market in the Asian region where many other nations are planning major acquisitions.

  The Swedish company executives are hopeful that the Indian Government would shortlist the competitors by December to bring the number of contenders from six to two or three.

  The Gripen is in contention with American F-16 and F-18/A Super Hornets, French Rafale, Russian MiG 35 and Eurofighter Typhoon.

The company executives claimed that the Gripen had come through well in Indian flight trials held at Leh and Jaisalmer.

"The trials were a complete success. We are very happy with the trials that went off early 2010. We are looking forward to the next steps and we are hopeful," Eddy de la Motte, Director, Gripen for India, told PTI on the sidelines of the Africa Aerospace and Defence expo 2010.

Gripen, like other five contenders, had undergone trials at Bangalore, Leh and Jaisalmer for performance assessment trials over varying terrain and weather conditions over six months that ended in March-April this year.

Saab Turns Towards Asia, Eastern Europe to Save Gripen Fighter

Saab  is in a campaign to sell its Gripen Fighter in Asia and eastern Europe as Switzerland’s decision to delay a $1 billion fighter purchase.

Orders from Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia and a follow-on contract from Thailand are “major near-term opportunities” for the Gripen, which competes with models from Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing Co., Dassault Aviation SA and Eurofighter GmbH, Saab Aeronautics chief Lennart Sindahl said in an interview.

Brazilian Engineers Already Working on the Gripen Fighter Project

While the Brazilian government decides to give another chance for the companies to improve their offers in the bid for the new fighter planes Brazil is buying, the technology transfer for this type of airplane has already begun with at least one of the competitors, Saab.
[Led] by Akaer, the companies Friuli, Winnstal, Minoica and Imbra Aerospace sent a team of 20 Brazilian engineers and technicians to Sweden to start working on the project of the new Swedish fighter, the Gripen NG, produced by Saab Aerosystems. Besides the Swedish group, the American Boeing and the French Dassault are competing to sell 36 fighters to the Brazilian Air Force.

Israel drops Indian jets venture under US pressure: report

Jerusalem: Israel has dropped out of a multi-billion dollar joint venture with a Swedish firm to develop new fighter jets for India because of US pressure, a newspaper reported on Monday.
Israel Aerospace Industries was planning to develop a new model of the Swedish-made Gripen fighter jet with its manufacturer, Saab, to compete in a tender to sell the planes to India's armed forces, the Jerusalem Post said.
But the state-owned firm backed out on the orders of the Israeli defence ministry "after the Pentagon expressed concern that American technology, used byIsrael, would be integrated into the Gripen," the newspaper said.
It said Washington had likely pressured its close ally because two major US aircraft manufacturers -- Boeing and Lockheed Martin -- are also participating in the tender for more than 120 aircraft estimated at 12 billion dollars (8.5 billion euros) .
"This is not the first time that the defence ministry forced a local company out of a deal due to concerns that competition with American companies would cause friction with the United States," it said.
In 2008, the defence ministry ordered Israel Military Industries not to submit a bid for a 500 million-dollar deal for the manufacture of a new tank for Turkey because it would have been in competition with US firms, it said.
Israel replaced France in 2007 as India's second-largest arms supplier after Russia and could grab the number one slot through a vast array of defence agreements already signed with New Delhi.
In May, India took delivery of its first Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) plane as part of a deal with Israel worth more than one billion dollars.

First Flight for South African Gripen C

The first single-seat Gripen C destined for the South African Air Force flew for the first time on Thursday 11th June.
The aircraft, number 39.2101, was flown by Saab test pilot Richard Ljungberg. It took off from Saab's facility at Linköping in Sweden at 13.00 and touched down safely back at Linköping at 14.03 in the afternoon.
The aircraft will undergo a short flight test programme ahead of delivery to South Africa in October.
South Africa has ordered 17 Gripen C and 9 dual-seat Gripen D fighters under a comprehensive military transformation and modernisation programme.

Thailand Air Force Scraps Plan to Buy More Gripen Fighters

Budget cuts have compelled the air force to shelve its planned purchase of six more Swedish-made Gripen fighters, the Bangkok Post reports. As the government decided on Wednesday to slash the defence budget for the next fiscal year from 171 billion to 151 billion baht, the air force had to ditch its plan to order six more Gripen fighter jets worth 15 billion baht, commander Itthaporn Subhawong said.
The air force has already bought six Gripen jets worth 19 billion baht with the planes due for delivery next year. The air force needs the other six Gripen jets to complete a fleet of 12 that will replace its ageing F-5 fighters scheduled to be decommissioned in 2011.

Sweden Makes Gripen Jet Fighter Offer to Greece

Sweden has positioned itself as a contender for the Greek jet fighter program by offering up its Gripen as an alternative to the French Rafale, the Eurofighter Typhoon, and the Boeing F-18E Super Hornet.
Greece is pursuing a two-round procurement strategy in its pursuit of a new state-of-the-art combat aircraft. The first round is to conclude this year and calls for an initial procurement of 40 aircraft with an option for a further 20. Deliveries would then take place in 2010 and 2011.

Saab waits on Brazil and India for Sea Gripen go ahead

Saab will only develop an aircraft carrier-capable version of its JAS 39 Gripen NG fighter should either India or Brazil select the land-based variant to fulfil their fighter replacement programmes, the company has said.
Eddy de la Motte, Gripen campaign director for India, told reporters on 12 June that development of the aircraft has, to date, been driven by its core customer, the Swedish Air Force (SwAF). With no Swedish requirement for a navalised aircraft, it requires a customer with a carrier capability to serve as a catalyst for any such development of the proposed Sea Gripen.
"[Development of the Sea Gripen] only makes sense if India or Brazil buy the NG as Sweden has no carriers," he said during a briefing at the company's Linköping facility in southern Sweden.
According to de la Motte, the 'land' Gripen needs only rudimentary changes to make it carrier compatible. These include a strengthened undercarriage, bigger brakes and a tail hook (which the NG will have). The standard Gripen has a large number of the attributes for carrier operations, such as a high precision landing capability, a high pitch and roll rate authority and precision glide slope control, a reinforced airframe and enhanced anti-corrosion protection.

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