Higher Than Expected Gripen Tech Transfer For Brazil

Brazil will receive a higher amount of technology transfer as part of its Saab Gripen NG fighter purchase than initially planned, the president of the Brazilian Combat Aircraft Program Coordinating Committee (COPAC), Brigadier José Augusto Affonso said.

The FX-2 project should have increments in the issue of technology transfer thanks to advances in the negotiations. The participation of the Brazilian defense industry in this project will happen on a larger scale, being present in more areas than previously expected. As part of the new technology transfer plans, over one hundred Brazilian defense industry professionals will  move to Linköping, in southern Sweden next year, where they will begin the process of technology transfer for the Gripen NG fighters, the brigadier was quoted in a statement issued by the Brazilian MoD after a COPAC meeting.

Meanwhile, Brazil has allocated 1 billion réals ($417 million) for the acquisition of Gripen New Generation (NG) fighters under the air force’s FX-2 Project for 2015. A contract for the procurement of 36 fighters is expected  to be signed by December of this year for deliveries between 2019 and 2024.

The COPAC also discussed the possibility of adding to the future contact’s chapter on technology transfer a study on the feasibility of the Gripen NG being further developed for Navy use, as carrier-based fighters.

Admiral Carlos Frederico Carneiro Primo, head of the Navy’s Department of Aeronautics, said that  this study would count as an offset for the contract and, if feasible, could represent an important logistical gain for Brazil.

"If I buy a plane and use this same model in another service, I gain in terms of life cycle, maintenance and operation of the aircraft, and reinforcing interoperability, i.e. the ability of the three armed forces to interact" the Admiral was quoted  as saying.