Canada Holds Talks to Procure Swedish Gripen Fighters as F-35 Deal Collapse Looms
North America, Western Europe and Oceania , Aircraft and Anti-Aircraft
The Canadian Defence Ministry is currently holding talks with the Swedish defence producer SAAB regarding the possible procurement of Gripen E/F fourth generation fighters, with Saab CEO Micael Johansson having on April 6 confirmed that negotiations were ongoing. The Gripens would replace 98 U.S.-supplied Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18A/B Hornet fighters, which first entered service in the country in 1982 and have long since been considered obsolete. Canada in March 2022 selected the F-35A to succeed its F-18s, with procurement of 88 fighters planned at a cost of $14.2 billion, around $161 million per aircraft. The decision to resume talks on procuring an alternative fighter have primarily been stimulated by a sharp deterioration in relations with the United States, primarily due to threats to impose steep tariffs on imported Canadian goods. Statements by President Donald Trump regarding the possible annexation of Canada into the United States have further stimulated anti-American sentiment in the country. The F-35 has consistently been strongly favoured over competing aircraft including the Gripen in tenders across the world, and while being significantly more costly its combination of stealth capabilities, a far more powerful sensor suite, and superior network centric warfare capabilities are considered to make it a more cost effective aircraft for high intensity operations.
Although shifting procurement plans from the F-35 to the Gripen would be motivated primarily by political factors, the Swedish fighter does retain a number of advantages over its American counterpart. The F-35’s notoriously high operational costs for a single engine fighter mean that over the fleet’s lifetime it is expected to set the Canadian Defence Ministry back by close to $39 billion in further expenses beyond initial procurement costs. The Gripen’s operational costs are well under half those of the F-35, which combined with a much lower procurement cost would allow for a fleet over twice as large to be fielded at similar expense, or for surplus funding to be allocated to procuring supporting assets such as AEW&Cs. Greater investment in procuring larger quantities of long range cruise missiles could also be made to compensate for the fighter’s lack of stealth capabilities and poor suitability to penetrate heavily defended enemy airspace. The limitations of Sweden’s defence sector are largely compensated for by outsourcing significant parts of the Gripen E/F program to other countries, with the fighters using an American engine and Italian radar.
The Gripen’s lower maintenance needs ensure that availability rates remain far higher than those of the F-35, meaning even if a similar number of fighters is procured a significantly greater number of aircraft will be combat ready at any time. The Gripen also has the advantage of being able to operate more effectively from makeshift runways including regular motorways without extensive hardening or other modification, which reduces vulnerability to the targeting of airbases. The fighter’s limited situational awareness can potentially be compensated for by networking with U.S. Air Force F-35s based in Alaska, as the air forces of the two countries operate together under the North American Aerospace Defense Command. This allows the F-35s to share targeting data and other key information that could not be picked up by the Gripen’s much more limited sensors, with the two fighter classes potentially being highly complementary when operating together.
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