Saab today held its annual Gripen seminar at its Stockholm headquarters to share the latest thoughts and insights on this unique family of fighters with a global audience. A recording of the seminar and the slide pack are available at http://saab-seminar.creo.se/180516/annual_gripen_seminar_2018
Jonas Hjelm, Senior Vice President and head of business area Aeronautics hosted the event and opened the seminar with an overview of Gripen. The continued evolvement of the Gripen C class was highlighted, including the Czech Air Force upgrading with the MS20 standard, which enables new missions for their Gripen C fleet. The ongoing Gripen E programme’s notable achievements since the 2017 seminar were covered, including its first flight and going supersonic.
The recent announcement on a new Gripen E aerostructures facility showed the progress on the co-operation with Brazil, whilst the Gripen User Group of customers held their meetings there for the first time. An update on the continued levels of global interest in the Gripen family was provided by Richard Smith, head of Gripen marketing and sales, with Saab able to meet the demands from different market segments with the C and E-series.
This year’s seminar saw new speakers who came to discuss features of the Gripen E aircraft and address a chosen specialism relevant to fighters. Mikael Olsson, Gripen pilot from Saab’s Flight Test Centre talked about the importance of Gripen E as fighter that allowed the pilot to be in total control, rather than just flying to survive in a hostile battlespace.
The subject of Electronic Warfare (EW) is gaining increasing awareness as advanced radars and missiles makes it imperative that a fighter is designed to compete in the EW battlespace. Inga Bergström, sales director for Gripen EW, explained how Gripen E has a sophisticated EW system integral to its design to ensure mission success against the wide spectrum of current and future threats.
The Gripen seminar is an annual event whereby Saab gives an insight into the renowned fighter and participants can pose questions in an event hosted simultaneously in Stockholm and online.
