Technical Supplements

Technical Supplements S1 The IG JAS Investment In this Technical Supplement the JAS 39 Gripen product concept is outlined, the procurement process documented, the Industry Group IG JAS presented and the critical role of the competent public procurement agency, the FMV, highlighted. S1.1 The Procurement of the JAS 39 Gripen Aircraft with Swing-Role Capabilities The JAS 39 Gripen multirole combat aircraft (J stands for fighter, A for Attack and S for Surveillance/reconnaissance) is a fourth generation aircraft that entered operational service in 1997. It replaced the Viggen, the last of which was taken out of service in 2006. JAS 39 Gripen is a combat aircraft with swing-role capabilities that can change mission in flight. This swing-role capability was unique when Gripen was launched but has later been introduced on the French Rafale and the Eurofighter. Other competing multirole aircraft first have to land to reconfigure its information, guidance, and weapons systems for a new role. Gripen was the first “unstable” aircraft in the world which meant that in order for the aircraft to be stable at all speeds and in all maneuvers many more navigation surfaces are needed than the pilot can possibly control himself to minimize air friction at each moment. He needs incredibly sophisticated computer systems support to maneuver the aircraft effectively and safely. Competing fourth generation combat aircraft are F-35/JSF (the USA, not yet (2009) delivered to market), the Eurofighter Typhoon (the UK, etc.) and Rafale (Dassault, France). JAS 39 Gripen also competes with upgraded versions of the third generation aircraft of Lockheed Martin F-16 (the USA, first delivered in 1978), Boeing F/A18 Hornet (the USA, first delivered in 1983), Dassault Mirage 2000 (France, first delivered in 1983), and Mig-29 (the former Soviet Union, first delivered in 1977). Both Norway and Denmark have to replace their aging F-16 aircraft, which has created a Nordic opportunity for Saab. The Next Generation (NG) Gripen with its 247 248 Technical Supplements more effective engine, heavier weapons load, and greater flying range that was presented on April 23, 2008 has been offered to Brazil, Denmark, India, and Norway. In early 2007, French Dassault withdrew its Rafale aircraft from the competition in Denmark and Norway citing unfair competition. Just before Christmas in 2007, the Eurofighter consortium also withdrew from competition in the two countries, also citing unfair competition (Militaer Teknikk, 6/2007; SvD, April 15, 2008). Boeing visited Norway in 2008 to mention the existence of its F18 Hornet. This left JAS 39 Gripen and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) in the competition. Since Lockheed Martin has been early to market its product, but has yet to deliver, it has had to ask for more time to be ready. To eliminate “wasteful competition” and save money, furthermore, President Obama has been canceling rival engine development program for the JSF. So when mishaps during tests of the Pratt & Whitney engine were reported, worries for even longer delays were voiced (The New York Times: Business, Sept. 15, 2009). Saab, on the other hand, has been ready for some time to deliver a comparable aircraft at half the expected price for the JSF. The JSF has partial stealth features and therefore claims to be a fifth generation combat aircraft. The stealth feature is, however, a mixed blessing. To carry all weapons inside the hull (as the JSF does) you get a bulky and slow aircraft. To fly fast it needs to turn on the after burner, and then the aircraft becomes very visible to the enemy. The Gripen, on the other hand, can fly very fast (“supercruise”) without the after burner turned on. The range is about the same, but the Gripen is faster. Still, the Norwegian military, after decades of tuning in to US equipment has long been rumored to like the JSF aircraft more. Industrial spillovers are a significant part of practically all procurement of this kind. An industrial argument can therefore be made for the greater area for picking up spillovers that the three Nordic countries or all EU countries make up together (see Chap. 7 on the European perspective). The long life of these types of aircraft, furthermore, means that the life time maintenance, repair, and modernization support that the supplier can guarantee is critical. This demand also makes it important that Swedish military also operates a large fleet of JAS 39 Gripen aircraft as a “pilot.” On this the previous Norwegian defense minister Thorvald Stoltenberg emphasized that the Nordic countries have to cooperate within defense and disaster preparedness, or there won’t be any defense at all (SvD, July 14, 2008). In November 2008, Norway suddenly decided on Lockheed Martin and its JSF on grounds that still have to be fully clarified. Apparently, other circumstances mattered more for the Norwegian decision than cost performance of the aircraft and industrial spillover values. There has been a post “Norwegian decision” discussion about a rigged political investigation and unclear product feature and price commitments on the part of Lookheed Martin that have been unfavorable to Saab (Ny Teknik, No. 20, May 13, 2009). A Norwegian military expert and the Norwegian correspondent for Jane’s Defence Weekly even claims in an article in Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter (August 30, 2009, DN Debatt) that the political decision makers, including the defense minister Stoltenberg, have been cheated. They will now get a not as good and much more expensive aircraft than the Saab NG Gripen. The decision, it was argued in the article, should therefore be canceled and a new and more open investigation conducted. S1 The IG JAS Investment 249 S1.2 Swedish Military Aircraft Procurement History Saab and the IG JAS group would not have been capable of taking on the Gripen development project without the experience from a long history of developing very advanced military aircraft platforms and systems and before that modifying and manufacturing foreign combat aircraft on license. Previous main Swedish combat jet aircraft fully developed and engineered by Saab are: Saab J-29 (Den flygande Tunnan, or “The Flying Barrel” first generation fighter aircraft with jet propulsion. Six hundred and sixty one aircraft were delivered between 1948 and 1953). Saab 32 (Lansen). Saab 35 (Draken), both second generation and supersonic, 456 and 612 delivered, respectively, from 1952 to 1955). Saab 37 (Viggen, third generation, first flown 1967. Three hundred and twenty nine aircraft were delivered from 1971 to 1990). The last Viggen aircraft was taken out of service in 2006. The Saab J-29 replaced the piston-engined aircraft of the immediate post WWII period. It “competed,” or rather compared, with the F-86 Sabre (the USA), the British Vampire, and the Soviet MIG-15. The second generation combat aircraft featured integrated weapons and avionics systems. Some early computerization of systems were introduced. The supersonic Lansen and Draken from Saab here compared with the US F-5 Freedom Fighter and the Soviet MIG-21. The third generation aircraft were all supersonic and relied extensively on digital computerization and advanced systems integration to achieve functionality. The Swedish Saab 37 Viggen could here be compared with the Soviet MIG-29, the US (General Dynamics/Lockheed Martin) F-16, the (McDonnell Douglas/Boeing) F/A-18 Hornet and the French Mirage 2000. All Swedish combat aircraft had been specially configured to fend off an invading enemy, read the Soviet Union, and therefore carried a limited potential for export sales. The JAS 39 Gripen was the first fourth generation combat aircraft that distin- guished itself from the previous generation with its instability properties and multirole (in the air swing-role) capacity. This time the Swedish authorities demanded that both export sales and civilian production had to be made part of the economics of the project which put Saab (between 1969 and 1996 Saab Scania) under pressure to organize itself for a far more ambitious future than ever before. The JAS 39 Gripen Aircraft, being a complex integrated platform in itself, was also the core element in the new Swedish central military command system which included specialized weapons, a surveillance system operating in real time, all integrated with a combat management system and road bases distributed over the entire country that together constituted an integrated and complex whole that was to be developed in parallel (RRV 1996:27:26). This integrated whole, based on the new distributed 250 Technical Supplements computing technology was an early forerunner of what was later to be called the networked defense, a critical part of it being the digital datalink of the STRIL 90 (later rechristened STRIC) combat management system. The new computer and communi- cations technology intensive system has significantly raised the spillover intensity of the JAS 39 Gripen procurement compared to earlier combat aircraft procurement. The first version JAS 39 Gripen contracted in 1982 and first delivered in 1992 featured a fully digitized infrastructure with sensors, weapons, aero dynamic surfaces, aircraft controls, and displays, all standardized and integrated. Above all, the basic physical structure of the aircraft had been designed for a high and flexible development potential that could accommodate a wide range of new future functionalities. This represents the result of a sophisticated integration of customer user competence and supplier flexibility that has guaranteed a long life of the aircraft through upgrading and modernization. The expectation is that the JAS 39 Gripen aircraft will be in operational service at least as late as 2035, perhaps as late as 2045. In general, the different generations of aircraft differ in terms of installed computer capacity, a difference that is particularly characteristic of the change from Viggen to Gripen.

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