Saab Renews Bid to Sell Gripen E Fighters to Canada as US Trade Talks Collapse

Sweden’s Saab wants to build fighters on Canadian soil. CEO Micael Johansson calls a mixed F-35 and Gripen E fleet a “perfect match,” and he is making the case a day after U.S.-Canada trade talks broke down.

Swedish defense company Saab is pressing its case to sell Gripen E fighters to Canada and build them there, a day after trade talks between Ottawa and Washington collapsed.

Chief Executive Micael Johansson told reporters at Malmen Air Base in Linköping, Sweden, on Aug. 22 that Canada would be better served flying the Gripen alongside the Lockheed Martin F-35 than relying on the American stealth fighter alone, according to remarks reported by FlightGlobal.

“I don’t think Canada will give up the F-35 completely; they will go forward with that to some extent,” Johansson said.

The pitch lands at a delicate moment for one of the highest-profile U.S. export programs. Canada has ordered 16 F-35s against a stated total requirement of 88 aircraft, and Ottawa is reviewing whether to reduce that commitment and move instead to a fleet of two types.

Relations between the two capitals were already strained before negotiations broke down late on Aug. 21. Hours later, U.S. tariffs of 50% took effect on about $20 billion of Canadian goods. Prime Minister Mark Carney blamed the breakdown on last-minute U.S. demands, saying changes to the proposed terms “were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal.”

Carney said Canada would match the levies “dollar for dollar,” with retaliatory tariffs on steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics due to take effect Sept. 8. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Canada had declined to finalize the deal, pointing to what he called new demands and walk-backs by Ottawa.

Why Saab Says A Split Fleet Works

Johansson’s argument rests on numbers and basing, not stealth.

“You get the availability, the combat mass flying Gripen,” he said. “You get to use all kinds of airstrips that you cannot use with the F-35.”

“So having both is actually, from my perspective, Canada’s perspective, a perfect match,” Johansson said.

The Gripen was designed around Sweden’s practice of dispersing fighters to highway strips and austere sites, dispersed basing of the kind the U.S. Air Force has adopted under its own doctrine of agile combat employment.

A Third Assembly Line, This One In Canada

Saab has offered Ottawa more than airplanes. The company has proposed a domestic final assembly line for the Gripen E/F — a third such plant on top of its facilities in Sweden and Brazil.

Johansson said Saab has been clear about the industrial capability it is offering Ottawa “and how we want to create an aerospace hub in Canada, fully building fighters in Canada.”

The Canadian plant would not be a direct copy of the Brazilian one. Even so, Johansson said, “We’ve shown that we’ve done it before in Brazil so we can do it in Canada.”

He called a second overseas line a “win-win for us,” giving Saab more capacity as global demand grows. “We have a hub in Brazil, and definitely, if Canada selects co-supply [the Gripen and F-35], we will build a fully fledged hub in Canada,” he said, adding that output could begin within five years.

The American Content Problem

One obstacle sits inside the airplane. The Gripen carries a substantial amount of U.S. content, including its GE Aerospace F414 engine — meaning Washington retains leverage over any sale to Canada.

Johansson said he is not alarmed. Any move by the United States to restrict engines or parts “would be completely transformational to the level playing field,” he said, and “so far, we have seen no signs of that.”

“We have all the [export] licences, so I’m just moving forward to assume that the rules of play will be fine because if they start doing that, it would be really detrimental,” he said.

Where the United States is not selling the whole aircraft to a country, Johansson said, “this is absolutely the second best [solution].”

Ottawa Keeps Its Options Open

In briefing materials published Feb. 4 for a parliamentary committee appearance on the auditor general’s report “Delivering Canada’s Future Fighter Jet Capability,” Canada’s Department of National Defence said its review of the F-35 decision was continuing and was “also considering all options, including a mix of fighter aircraft.” The department did not give a completion date. The Royal Canadian Air Force continues working toward retiring its CF-18 fleet in 2032.

Johansson told the Swedish business daily Dagens industri that the breakdown in trade talks had done little to dampen Canada’s interest in the Gripen E, the paper reported.

As of Aug. 24, neither Lockheed Martin nor Canada’s Department of National Defence had publicly addressed Johansson’s remarks.

Filling The Line In Sweden

Saab is expanding regardless of what Ottawa decides. Johansson said the company is “investing heavily” to lift output at Linköping to 25 to 30 Gripens a year, and that the effort is “on track.”

Saab’s 117-aircraft backlog includes E- and F-model Gripens for Brazil, Colombia, Sweden and Thailand. Saab signed a contract on June 30 with Sweden’s Defence Materiel Administration, which is buying on Ukraine’s behalf, for 16 jets valued at about 24.6 billion Swedish kronor, or roughly $2.5 billion, with deliveries to the agency scheduled for 2029 and 2030. Kyiv declared a requirement for as many as 150 Gripens in October 2025.

Sweden plans to order another 12 Gripen Es to offset the 16 older C/D-model jets it has pledged to Ukraine, Swedish air force commander Maj. Gen. Jonas Wikman said in July. Meeting that demand, Saab has said, will also require Brazil to increase its output.

Software Cadence And New Weapons

Saab has been advertising the pace at which it can change the airplane. Johan Segertoft, head of Saab’s Gripen business unit, said 300 capability upgrades have been fielded since the Gripen E first flew in 2017, against what he described as a theoretical maximum of about five on competing aircraft.

“Think about the difference that means – our normal pace within the company now is that we are flying a new version every week,” Segertoft said. Saab’s internal mantra, he said, is “code in the evening, deploy in the morning, learn by lunch.”

In 2025, Saab and Germany’s Helsing integrated and test-flew Helsing’s Centaur artificial intelligence agent on a Gripen E, which demonstrated beyond-visual-range combat capability. Segertoft said the integration took 10 weeks.

Saab is also working with the Swedish air force and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory on controlling collaborative combat aircraft from a manned fighter. “We’ve been doing this for quite some time. We are now entering the phase where we’re doing flight tests simply because the Gripen E is the only platform that you are capable of doing rapid development like this,” Segertoft said.

Separately, the Swedish air force fired a Taurus KEPD 350 cruise missile from a Gripen C for the first time on Aug. 21, at the Vidsel Test Range in northern Sweden. The missile is built by Taurus Systems, a joint venture of MBDA Deutschland and Saab Bofors Dynamics.

Other Canadian Threads, And What Comes Next

Carney announced May 27 at the CANSEC defense show in Ottawa that Canada had named Saab preferred supplier for its future airborne early warning and control capability, based on the GlobalEye, but Saab has not signed a contract or received an order. The company has offered to build, maintain and upgrade the aircraft with Canadian partners and to invest in research and development in Canada. In July, Saab and CAE signed a memorandum of understanding covering fighter pilot training, mission systems engineering and sustainment in Canada if the Gripen is selected.

On Europe’s next fighter generation, after France and Germany agreed in June to cancel the crewed fighter at the heart of the Future Combat Air System, the program they ran with Spain, Johansson said Saab is not in an “urgent situation” and that there are no “real collaboration discussions right now.” Any participation would be decided by the Swedish government. He said Saab is nonetheless talking to other companies to track market developments, describing the company as “agnostic but knowledgeable about what’s going on.”

“At the same time, we have open doors, but I have no exact plan right now which way it is going to go. I do respect the fact that market volume and scale is important, but we will see,” he said.