Gripen: A No Strings Attached Deal For India
Saab's Make in India proposal is a lot more than just transferring assembly lines to India. It is an offer to establish the world’s most modern fighter aircraft manufacturing capability in India.
A Gripen seminar held on 14th Feb, 2019 in New Delhi, India, included a detailed presentation by Mats Palmberg, Vice President, Industrial Partnerships, Saab, and head of Gripen India campaign, where he explains how Saab’s technology transfer offer looks at the big picture, the one in which India is self-sufficient in defence production.
“Our proposal keeps in mind that in future, India should not look abroad for technology. India also wants to be an exporter of defense systems. Our offer is intended to strengthen India’s position as a global leader in defence, without any strings attached. Together with our Indian and international partners, we will develop a complete ecosystem for production, maintenance and upgrade of Gripen in India,” Mats says.
Gripen, with its flexible avionic architecture, offers an ease to integrate any weapon. "We have, in the past, integrated Israeli, U.S, Swedish, European, and South African weapons. We are prepared to do the same in India i.e. integrate Indian weapons,” he adds.
Saab is no stranger to transfer of technology. With its Brazilian Gripen programme, the Swedish defence & security company has already delivered on about 50% of the technology transfer projects. It is successfully collaborating with Brazilian companies like Embraer and Akaer to co-develop various Gripen E/F parts.