By Pierre Tran
Paris – Saab, the Swedish builder of the Gripen fighter jet, appears to have emerged as a potential plan B for Airbus Defence and Space, if a Franco-German €100 bln ($116 bln) project for a European future combat air system fails to take off.
A Dec. 18 summit in Berlin came and went without France and Germany announcing launch of work on an FCAS technology demonstrator in the new year. That may be seen as a political failure to broker an industrial agreement between the German partner Airbus DS and French partner Dassault Aviation on a new generation fighter at the heart of FCAS.
Spain is the third nation in the FCAS project, but the discord lies between the French and German industrial partners, locked in dispute over sharing technology, and work packages.
Readers of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung learned Dec. 21 there was Swedish corporate interest in working with Airbus DS on a new fighter, with an interview with the Saab president and chief executive, Micael Johansson. There was also interest in cooperating on a combat drone – or collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) – but the fighter is the big ticket item.
The Saab chief executive made clear there were terms of technology and industrial independence to be respected by the partner, Airbus DS, if such a deal went ahead. Political backing for such an industrial cooperation was critical.
“We’re ready for a joint fighter jet with the Germans – provided there’s a clear political commitment from both governments,” Johansson told the German daily.
“A further prerequisite is that we can continue to build fighter jet systems independently and don’t relinquish half of these competencies to another company,” he said. “I’m sure that the German perspective is similar: cooperation must not mean becoming completely dependent on one another.”
That Saab insistence on independence and intellectual property rights sounded similar to the red line drawn by Dassault, a family controlled company which has insisted on guarding its technology, and wants a third of the work on the FCAS fighter.
Meanwhile, it is understood there has been close attention paid to the weapons used in the war in Ukraine, including the extensive use of drones. The lessons learned will likely be applied in the research and development of future combat drones.
The FCAS project includes both sophisticated combat drones, and also lighter airborne weapons, with the latter to be built by MBDA, marking a crossover of missile to drone. The scenarios for future combat will likely include clusters of crewed and uncrewed aircraft, flying in an allied network.
A command and control network which includes allies of the Western forces is seen as opening up the export potential of CCA combat drones. Drones can be rated in levels of autonomy, ranging from one to five, with the present generation seen to be operating mainly at levels one and two, namely basic and assisted automation.
Fighter House
Saab carries the corporate tag of a “fighter house,” with a heritage of building the Tunnan, Draken, Viggen, and Gripen fighter jets for the Swedish air force. Stockholm is extending that fighter culture.
Saab said Oct. 14 it won a government contract worth some 2.6 billion Swedish crowns for concept studies, technology development and demonstrators for future fighter systems, both crewed and uncrewed.
That contract extended a March 2024 contract to 2025-2027, Saab said, and the company would work with the FMV procurement office, Swedish armed forces, defense research agency, GKN Aerospace, and other companies.
GKN Aerospace, a British company, provides service for the RM12 and RM16 engines of the C/D and E versions of the Gripen fighter.
Saab was an industrial partner on the Neuron, a French-led technology demonstrator for stealthy unmanned combat air vehicle, or combat drone, with the Swedish company designing the main fuselage, undercarriage doors, avionics, and fuel system, the prime contractor Dassault said on its company website. The industrial partners on Neuron came from Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland, with those companies sharing about half the value of the work.
Saab was a partner in the early days of the Tempest project for a new generation fighter backed by Britain and Italy. The Swedish company baled out, as Sweden saw the timing of its operational needs differing from the other nations. Japan later signed up and that extended Tempest to the global combat air program.
Saudi Arabia has shown interest in joining the GCAP program. That project is seen as another potential deal for Airbus Space & Defense.
Saab some years ago organized a press trip which showed its involvement in a wide range of military capabilities. That press trip closed with the first showing to foreign press of the Swedish air force DC3 shot down in 1952 by Soviet fighters.
The Swedish authorities had retrieved the parts of the spy plane from the bottom of the Baltic sea, pieced them together and laid them out on the ground in a navy submarine base. The rear of the fuselage showed bullet holes, indicating the plane had been shot down as it sought to fly away from the pursuing Soviet fighters.
It was pointed out that the downing of the DC3 was a major factor in Stockholm’s policy of building a capable and independent military force, while staying neutral and outside Nato.
Sweden joined Nato in response to the Russian 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Drones and Clouds
Meanwhile, Airbus DS is a partner in the Eurofighter consortium, with Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.K. as partner nations. The German Airbus company has been seen as effectively a junior partner, with BAE Systems as the senior partner in the Typhoon fighter.
Airbus DS, however, leads the FCAS project pillar for the combat cloud – a command and control network to hook up allied aircraft, warships, satellites, and artillery on the ground. The importance of the cloud for Airbus could be seen in a presentation of its planned battle management capabilities by Bruno Fichefeux, the then Airbus DS director for FCAS, at the 2023 Paris air show.
Airbus DS is also the German lead on the FCAS pillar for heavy remote carriers – or advanced combat drones.
Airbus’s interest in drones could be seen at the 2025 Paris air show. The company’s static display included the Eurodrone, a €7.1 bln program for a medium-latitude, long-endurance drone. Airbus DS is prime contractor on that program, which has drawn fire for its price tag and seen as overtaken by events in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Airbus also displayed at the show its Capa-X light tactical drone for special forces, and Sirtap, an advanced tactical drone ordered by Spain. Those drones can be armed, as well as delivering intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.
Airbus has long worked on its drone skills, having launched in 2003 its Barracuda, a demonstrator built on company funds. Technology from that stealthy jet-powered uncrewed arial vehicle, styled as a combat drone, has fed into the Eurodrone and FCAS projects, the company said.
It would take 10 years to develop a new fighter, which would likely enter operations in the late 2030s, the Saab chief executive told the German FAZ daily. The first cooperative steps would be to work on drones, which would take four or five years. Saab was already in talks with Airbus DS on work on drones, he said.
Dassault Raises Stake in AI
Dassault is taking the lead in a $200 mln second stage funding round launched by Harmattan AI, with the two companies seeking to speed up integration of artificial intelligence into combat aviation systems, the companies said Jan. 12 in a joint statement.
Harmattan AI is a French start-up specialized in wiring AI into weapon systems.
“This partnership will support the development of embedded AI capabilities by Harmattan AI within Dassault Aviation’s future air combat systems (Rafale F5 and UCAS), particularly for the control of unmanned aerial systems,” the companies said.
Separately, Dassault expects to report 2025 sales above €7 bln, the company said in a Jan. 7 statement. That compares to €6.2 billion in the previous year. The company said it delivered last year 26 Rafale, one more than expected, and compared to 21 in the previous year.
The company won export orders for 26 Rafale last year, down from 30 in the previous year. Dassault won a 2025 order for 26 Rafale for the Indian navy.
The order book rose to 220 by the end of 2025, the same level as the previous year.
India is in talks with Dassault for procurement of up to 114 Rafale fighters, with a potential order for 90 units in the present F4 version and options for 24 more in the planned F5, Economic Times, an India daily, reported Jan. 10. Those negotiations include building and servicing the fighters in India.
It remains to be seen if the 2026 French military budget will fund a planned package of flying the Rafale F5 with an uncrewed combat air vehicle based on the Neuron prototype. The French government failed to win parliamentary approval of the draft 2026 budget, due to deep splits in the lower house National Assembly.
The 2025 budget has been extended into the new year as an interim measure.