Final month, the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine interviewed Saab’s CEO, Micael Johansson, concerning the firm’s packages normally and, particularly, its efforts within the German market.
Saab AB is a notable defence authentic gear producer (OEM) in that its platform choices are extra the results of authentic design and integration work than of indigenous sourcing. Actually, at occasions, one can use Saab AB and Sweden interchangeably, because the OEM operates solely on the premise of its nation’s core industrial strengths and a realistic supply-chain sourcing method.
The methodology is grounded within the actuality that Sweden can’t develop and/or feasibly scale all of the inputs required for a fancy defence platform, reminiscent of a fighter plane.
For instance, if it tried to develop the turbofan engine, flight management techniques, alloys, electronics, and all munitions from scratch, indigenously, the best-case final result could be a high-cost product that it couldn’t amortize as a result of it will by no means generate adequate orders.
Therefore, over the many years, Sweden – or Saab AB – regularly shifted its focus to turning into a robust, if not among the many world’s strongest, integrator.
For instance, Sweden’s 2025 Defence Business Technique formalizes an integrator-centric method by figuring out particular “strategic” materiel classes – e.g., fight plane, underwater platforms reminiscent of submarines, command-and-control, and cartridge ammunition – and calling for partnerships and industrial measures centred on these classes moderately than on indigenizing each enter.
A current – and fast-growing success story – of this instance is the GlobalEye platform. The plane platform, surface-facing radar, and plenty of different inputs are sourced from overseas.
The bottom plane is the Canadian Bombardier World Specific 6000, the floor radar is the Leonardo SeaSpray sequence, and the optronics are from Star. Nevertheless, the airborn early warning (AEW) radar, the Erieye-ER, was indigenously developed.
Thus, Saab AB built-in available off-the-shelf parts and its proprietary techniques right into a cohesive bundle, one which evidently performs at a stage corresponding to many of the wider business. With French orders on the books, the GlobalEye could rise to grow to be Western Europe’s alternative for airborne early warning and management (AEW&C) techniques.
In fact, this doesn’t imply Saab AB doesn’t construct its personal platforms. It evidently does by way of the Gripen fighter and A26 submarine. Nevertheless, Saab AB designs its merchandise utilizing the inputs it may possibly readily supply domestically and overseas. It strategically integrates its proprietary IP to make sure that multinational sourcing operates as a bundle, and in doing so, is rewarded with orders worldwide, notably in Europe.
If one imagines defence suppliers on a spectrum, at one finish are turnkey powers reminiscent of america and China. These international locations drive excessive R&D volumes and quickly scale manufacturing (on the again of enormous home orders) to ship superior merchandise at comparatively accessible costs (relative to the capabilities on provide). On the opposite finish of the spectrum are international locations that strictly assemble or, in Pakistan’s case, manufacture on the downstream utilizing principally – if not solely – foreign-sourced inputs.
Rising defence business gamers, reminiscent of South Korea and Türkiye, are actively working to meet up with the U.S. and China. Others, just like the European Union, leverage consortia to construct R&D funding capability and scale. Sweden operates in the midst of the spectrum and can focus its R&D on the design and integration of platforms moderately than on pursuing each important enter. Nevertheless, Saab AB takes design and integration work critically.
For instance, the corporate’s historical past signifies that important funding is allotted to design- and platform-level R&D. Research on next-generation fighter plane (NGFA) and unmanned fight aerial autos (UCAV) date again to the mid-to-late 2000s.
Saab states its 2025-2027 order (price about SEK 2.6 billion) consists of “conceptual research of manned and unmanned options in a system of techniques perspective” plus “expertise improvement and demonstrators,” and that it extends an earlier contract signed in March 2024.
In different phrases, Saab AB’s readiness to pursue these tasks was constructed on a number of many years of direct prior preparation, compounded by even longer expertise managing fighter manufacturing packages.
Inside the interview, Johansson made it clear that Saab AB’s next-generation fighter plane (NGFA) could be a Swedish-led venture. The aim is to make sure that Sweden maintains a sure stage of the expertise stack and industrial base, and that it doesn’t grow to be a part of a consortium the place Stockholm’s voice is diluted.
With that in thoughts, Johansson expects that Saab AB will develop its NGFA in about 10 years, with the goal of inducting it within the late 2030s, offered the Swedish authorities and armed forces freeze their necessities.
