On 18 June 2024, at the Swedish Air Force Museum in Linköping, the Flygvapnet held a retirement ceremony for a jet that had first flown 61 years earlier. Generations of Swedish fighter pilots, from the Viggen era to the Gripen, had taken their first jet flights in it, sitting shoulder to shoulder with an instructor.

The jet was the Saab 105, known in Swedish service as the Sk 60. Austria had already said goodbye to its own fleet on the last day of 2020, after 50 years. Between them, the two air forces flew the little twin-jet for well over half a century, as a trainer, a light attack aircraft, a display jet and, in Austria’s case, an interceptor.

A private venture that found its air force

Saab began work on the 105 around 1959 as a private venture. The company had big ambitions for it: a jet trainer, a light attack and reconnaissance aircraft, and even a small business jet with four or five seats. The business jet customers never appeared, but the Swedish Air Force had promised to buy at least 100 if the prototype performed.

It did. The first prototype flew on 29 June 1963, and test flying quickly showed good handling and a real aptitude for aerobatics. In March 1965 the Swedish government authorised an initial order for 130 aircraft, and the Sk 60 entered service in 1967. In the end Sweden bought 150.

The design was neat and practical. The 105 is a small all-metal jet with a high, slightly swept wing, a T-tail and a pressurised cockpit. Its two small turbofans sit low on either side of the fuselage, tucked under the wing roots. Instructor and student sit side by side on ejection seats, so the instructor can see exactly what the student’s hands are doing.

Trainer, striker, taxi

The Swedish fleet split into several variants. The Sk 60A was the basic trainer and liaison aircraft, the Sk 60B added a weapons sight for light attack, and the Sk 60C carried cameras in a lengthened nose for reconnaissance. Six underwing hardpoints could carry rockets, bombs or gun pods. In another trick, the ejection seats could be removed and replaced with four simple seats, turning the trainer into a small military taxi. In the mid-1970s ten Sk 60As were permanently converted this way as Sk 60D liaison transports, some of them painted in the splinter camouflage of the Viggen.

The Swedish Air Force Sk 60 solo display at the Royal International Air Tattoo 2023.

Sweden’s original jets used the French Turbomeca Aubisque, built under licence by Volvo Flygmotor as the RM9. Two engines were a real safety margin for students: the Aubisque reportedly gave the 105 good engine-out behaviour, allowing a takeoff to continue if one engine failed at the critical moment. By the 1990s those engines were reaching the end of their lives, and Sweden chose a cheaper fix than a new aircraft. The fleet was re-engined with Williams FJ44 turbofans, and the first upgraded Sk 60W went back to the air force in September 1996. A later cockpit upgrade made the old trainer a better stepping stone to the Saab JAS 39 Gripen.

The Sk 60 was also the jet of Team 60, the Swedish Air Force display team. In its last years a single Sk 60 solo display became a favourite on the European airshow circuit, and in 2023 it won the King Hussein Memorial Sword at the Royal International Air Tattoo. That year, marking six decades since the first flight, Sk 60 number 60105 appeared in a bright red and yellow scheme with “1963” and “2023” painted on its nose.

Austria’s little interceptor

Austria was the only export customer. It bought 40 of an improved model, the Saab 105Ö, with more powerful General Electric J85 engines, a strengthened wing for heavier loads and better performance from high-altitude bases. Training began in July 1970, and the jets were delivered between 1970 and 1972 to Linz-Hörsching Air Base.

Saab tried hard to sell more. A demonstrator re-engined with J85 turbojets, the 105XT, led directly to the Austrian version, but proposals for Switzerland and Finland came to nothing. Finland bought the British Hawk instead, and Sweden and Austria remained the only military operators.

For a neutral country with a small defence budget, the 105Ö did far more than teach. It flew reconnaissance and ground attack, and it shared air policing duties with Austria’s interceptors. The Austrian Air Force also flew it with its Karo As and Silver Birds display teams.

The Austrian Bundesheer’s own film of the fly-out ceremony marking 50 years of the Saab 105Ö.

By 2019 the fleet was tired. In November that year the Bundesheer grounded the 105Ös over damaged bolts. According to ORF, the Saabs had been handling a quarter of Austria’s air policing that year, at roughly 3,000 euros per flight hour, while an hour in a Eurofighter cost almost ten times as much. With the Saabs grounded, the Eurofighters had to cover everything.

The Saabs returned briefly, but their time was up. A ceremony marked 50 years of the 105Ö on 11 December 2020, and on 31 December 2020 two aircraft flew the type’s last operational sortie from Hörsching. Austrian jet pilots then trained in Italy until a replacement could be chosen.

Who replaces the Saab 105?

Austria’s answer came on 28 December 2024, when Defence Minister Klaudia Tanner announced the purchase of 12 Leonardo M-346FA light fighters, to be bought from the Italian government. They are meant both to bring pilot training back home and to strengthen air policing alongside the Eurofighters.

Sweden took a different path. Its retirement was delayed several times while the air force searched for a successor. The Grob G 120TP turboprop was chosen as the new basic trainer in 2021, and the Gripen itself takes over advanced training.

The Saab 105 did not quite disappear. The Swedish Air Force Historic Flight still flies one, SE-DXG. Its job was never glamorous. For more than half a century it simply turned students into jet pilots, one side-by-side lesson at a time.

Team 60, the Swedish Air Force display team, flying its Sk 60s.

Sources: Wikipedia (Saab 105), Scramble, This Is Flight, Breaking Defense, ORF, Wikimedia Commons