The Swedish firm Saab has put in a proposal to the Finnish defence procurement agency, the Logistics Command of the Finnish Defence to supply 64 Gripen aircraft, both single-seat Gripen E and dual-seat Gripen F.
Saab’s offered solutions to the needs of Finland Defence features the latest available technology for a continuously changing and very challenging operational environment. “The outstanding capabilities of Gripen are an excellent match for the Finnish needs and requirements. With Gripen, Finland can renew its fighter fleet without compromising on the number of fighters owing to a truly competitive life-cycle cost. Our offer constitutes a substantial contribution to the operational capability of the Finnish Defence Forces”, says Jonas Hjelm, Senior Vice President and head of Saab business area Aeronautics.
A final decision on the deal is anticipated in 2021 and would be positive news to Saab whose Gripen E programme is progressing according to the firms development plans, with production on-going and customer deliveries starting later this year.
Five nations are currently operating Gripen; Sweden, South Africa, Czech Republic, Hungary and Thailand. Sweden and Brazil have ordered Gripen E and Brazil has also ordered Gripen F. Additionally, the UK Empire Test Pilots School (ETPS) uses Gripen for test pilot training.