CAVOKUkraine to buy 100-150 Swedish Gripen planes. Hope to start using them next year.
InternetCitizen2Also massive L as in Lockheed Martin lol
Seriously good that this will help bring independence from US.
Seriously good that this will help bring independence from US.
I think the Gripen is a good fit for Ukraine, but for true independence from the US, we have to find a European engine for it. The US used the American engine of it before to exert pressure.
Kind of ironic that a SAAB plane doesn’t have its own SAAB engine
Volvo made aircraft engines for SAAB at one point. It makes sense when you account for the size of Sweden and the complexity of an aircraft that it’s a big challenge for one business or nation to build alone.
AkasazhVolvo is a Chinese company now.
Volvo Group is a Swedish company. And as fas as I know, a plurality of voting shares are still owned by Swedish companies. Geely does have a sizable stake, though. (14.7% of voting shares.)
Volvo Cars is a wholly owned subsidiary of Geely, and is 100% a Chinese company.
Even ‘worse’:
Following the typical Swedish approach of ‘everybody gets a piece’, the engine of the SAAB came from Volvo…! ;)
That engine was based on an American though and the new one of the modern variants is afaik directly American.
It’s an American design, but it’s built and modified in Sweden.
The original RM12 of the early versions, yea. Although I don’t know whether the US also have any leverage over that product since it is a derivative of the GE F404. For the new Gripen versions, SAAB unfortunately uses the GE F414 directly.
TIL. Thanks.