Already the former Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov, during his report to the Verkhovna Rada before the vote to accept his resignation, said that during his tenure "agreements were concluded that opened the way to cooperation" with a number of defense companies.
Baykar Makina, BAE Systems and Rheinmetall were mentioned among such companies, which have already been publicly reported. But the Swedish Saab was also mentioned in the list of companies with which agreements have been concluded.
Read more: Ukraine Has Entered Significant Agreements with BAE Systems Regarding the Production of L119 Light Howitzers and more
Until now, there was no public information regarding the cooperation of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry with Saab. Only in July of this year, Oleksii Reznikov announced the signing of a global agreement on cooperation in defense procurement between Ukraine and Sweden.
According to the minister, "this document opens up great opportunities both for our Armed Forces of Ukraine and for Swedish companies such as Saab and others."
Thus, a certain agreement with Saab was reached, but of course the question remains as to what exactly it concerns. Because the Swedish defense giant is responsible for many areas at once. The first thing that comes to mind is, of course, the JAS 39 Gripen multipurpose fighter. And it is the Gripen that the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine seriously targeted to fight for.
A long-range airborne early warning & control system, such as GlobalEye, is an objectively very necessary application for any fighter. And once a Swedish company offered its joint production on the basis of Antonov aircraft.
But Saab is the author of another type of weaponry, which even at the beginning of the full-scale russian invasion received a huge number of positive reviews - this is the anti-tank NLAW.
In the "treasury" of really excellent types of weapons of the Swedish manufacturer, it is also fair to include the AT4 grenade launcher, which is generally a bestseller on the arms market, just like the Carl Gustaf.
The RBS 70 MANPADS has already opened its combat account in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The latter, by the way, works perfectly in conjunction with the Giraffe radar, as well as with any other air defense system of a much higher level. For example, with the German IRIS-T SLS SAM system.
That is, the list of weapons developed and produced by Saab is really impressive. In addition, the company's cooperation with Ukrainian partner companies may refer to fundamentally new joint developments
Read more: The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Announced a Staggering Number of Received and Ordered Weapons From 2022
