{"id":254137,"date":"2025-11-01T08:17:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T08:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/254137\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T08:17:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T08:17:11","slug":"bombardier-swedens-saab-in-talks-to-build-gripen-fighter-jet-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/254137\/","title":{"rendered":"Bombardier, Sweden\u2019s Saab in talks to build Gripen fighter jet in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A Saab Gripen fighter jet flies at the Aero India show at Yelahanka Air Force Station in Bengaluru, February, 2017.Abhishek Chinnappa\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Sweden\u2019s Saab AB and Bombardier Inc.<\/a> are in discussions to build the Saab Gripen fighter-jet in Canada, the Montreal aerospace company says. <\/p>\n

Bombardier confirmed that the talks are under way after Saab chief executive officer Micael Johansson said in recent interviews that the company wants to expand production capacity of the multirole supersonic jet outside of Sweden. Canada is among the countries that might be able to assemble the aircraft, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe confirm discussions with Saab about the Gripen,\u201d Mark Masluch, Bombardier\u2019s senior director of communications, told The Globe and Mail on Friday. \u201cBombardier is open to providing local expertise if the government of Canada decides to go this route.\u201d<\/p>\n

A senior Canadian government source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the talks between Saab and Bombardier, told The Globe that a \u201cJV [is] being worked out between Saab and Bombardier,\u201d referring to a possible production joint venture.<\/p>\n

Saab acknowledged that talks are under way with Bombardier, but did not specifically say they were about the Gripen. Saab Canada president Simon Carroll said, \u201cWe are continuing discussions with Bombardier for a range of opportunities in Canada \u2026 to do manufacturing and further our scope of work with Bombardier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defence procurement secretary and Lockheed Martin meet, discuss purchase of fighter jets<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Masluch would not say who the buyers of any Canadian-made Gripens would be. The two known possible clients are the Royal Canadian Air Force, whose CF-18 Hornet fighter-jets were built in the 1980s and are running out of airframe time, and Ukraine\u2019s military. <\/p>\n

Canada has committed to buy 16 F-35 stealth fighters from Lockheed Martin Corp. of the United States, with options to buy another 72, taking the total purchases to 88. Shortly after Mark Carney<\/a> was sworn in as Prime Minister in March, he ordered a review of the $19-billlion F-35 contract amid an escalating trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a>. Mr. Carney said Canada needed to diversify its defence procurement, which relies heavily on American suppliers.<\/p>\n

The review has yet to be published. <\/p>\n

On Oct. 22, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensk<\/a>y and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson signed a letter of intent for Ukraine\u2019s purchase of 100 to 150 Gripen \u201cE\u201d series jets, the most advanced version of the aircraft that entered service with the Swedish Air Force in 1996 and which has been sold to the Hungarian, Brazilian and South African air forces. <\/p>\n

As new orders arrive, Saab is willing to have the Gripen built under licence outside Sweden. The Brazilian aerospace company Embraer S.A. is making 15 Gripens as part of the country\u2019s initial order of 36 jets. <\/p>\n

Bombardier gave no hint as to where the Gripen would be built if the company forms a joint venture with Saab. Two possible locations are Bombardier\u2019s new factory at Toronto Pearson International Airport, where its Global 6000 series long-range business jets are produced, and its older but larger factory in Dorval, Que., where its smaller Challenger jets are made. Depending on Gripen production volume, a new site could be built. <\/p>\n

Why a boost in defence spending may be the best offence against economic stagnation<\/a><\/p>\n

Thousands of jobs could be created if the Gripen is produced in Canada. The aerospace division of Saab has some 8,000 employees in Sweden, though not all of them work on the Gripen. The company also makes airborne surveillance systems, missiles and avionics (Bombardier has about 10,000 employees in Quebec and more than 2,000 at the Pearson site). <\/p>\n

Saab and Bombardier already have a business relationship and their executives know each other well. The primary link between the two companies is the joint production of the Saab GlobalEye airborne early warning and control (AEWC) military aircraft. The plane is based on Bombardier\u2019s Global 6000 and 6500 series of large business jets, which are built at Pearson and fitted with advanced radar and air- and ground-surveillance systems in Sweden. <\/p>\n

Mr. Carroll said the GlobalEye\u2019s radar can detect aircraft 450 kilometres away. Its sensors are so sophisticated that they can detect submarine periscopes that break the surface. So far, three of the planes have been sold to Sweden and five to the United Arab Emirates. Mr. Carroll said that sales to Canada are possible. \u201cCanada does want airborne early warning capability,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Saab also sells a variety of weapons to Canada, including anti-tank ammunition and the RBS 70 NG, a portable, laser-guided anti-aircraft missile. Bombardier has sold two Global 6500s to the Swedish Air Force for official state use. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A Saab Gripen fighter jet flies at the Aero India show at Yelahanka…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-254137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}