First Time Since 1937
Saab has been building fighter jets in Sweden since the company was founded 89 years ago. Until now, every single one rolled off a Swedish production line. “This is the first time since 1937, when Saab was founded, that a fighter aircraft is manufactured outside Sweden,” said Micael Johansson, Saab’s President and CEO. “It symbolises the strength of a partnership built on trust, long-term vision, and true cooperation.” The rollout was not a quiet industrial event. President Lula da Silva attended alongside Defense Minister José Múcio Monteiro Filho and Swedish Ambassador Karin Wallensten. The Brazilian Air Force’s commander, Lieutenant Brigadier Marcelo Kanitz Damasceno, called the milestone “the real expression of a ‘Supersonic Brazil.’” The aircraft took roughly two years and ten months to build from the start of structural production. Its aerostructures were manufactured at Saab’s facility in São Bernardo do Campo before final assembly at Embraer’s Gavião Peixoto plant.A Club With Very Few Members
Building a modern fighter jet — even under license — requires an industrial ecosystem that most countries simply do not have. Precision metalwork, avionics integration, flight control software, engine handling, weapons systems testing. The list is long and unforgiving. The nations capable of producing 4th-generation-or-better fighters domestically can be counted on two hands: the United States, Russia, France, China, Sweden, India, South Korea, and now Brazil. Turkey’s TF Kaan is approaching that threshold. Japan collaborates on the GCAP program. Everyone else buys off the shelf. Brazil’s route is different from South Korea’s KF-21, which is a fully indigenous design. The F-39E is a Swedish aircraft built under a comprehensive technology transfer agreement. But the distinction matters less than the result: Brazilian engineers, Brazilian workers, Brazilian factories producing a supersonic combat jet that can exceed Mach 2 and perform air-to-air combat, ground attack, reconnaissance, and air defense missions. Francisco Gomes Neto, Embraer’s CEO, was blunt about where this leads: “Our Gavião Peixoto plant is fully prepared to manufacture new Gripens for other countries.”“Victory smiles upon those who anticipate the changes in the character of war.”
— Giulio Douhet, The Command of the Air
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