Incomplete and Faulty: A Comment [on] the Norwegian Aircraft Procurement

>By Norways reckoning, the Joint Strike Fighter would be cheaper even if Sweden developed and gave away 48 Gripen NGs free of charge, Saab claims. (Saab photo)During the past two years, Saab has participated in the procurement process to replace the Norwegian F16 air force fleet. Throughout, Saab has experienced it to be a professional and open process and has had good relations to all concerned Norwegian counterparts. We have provided answers to thousands of technical, economic and organizational questions.>> We have also continuously been given clear signals that the answers provided have been satisfactory. It is important for procurement processes of this kind that the potential customer has access to all information considered important to form a fact based decision. We have not once had reason to believe this was not the case.>> We were given reason to believe that the Norwegian government wanted a close industrial co-operation between the two countries, and therefore put great emphasis on finding strong and competitive co-operative possibilities.>> The Norwegian prime ministers announcement on 20 November that Norway had chosen the American F35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) came as a surprise to Saab. The arguments put forward seemed to have very little, or no, establishment in the preceding procurement process.>> We did not recognize ourselves in the assessment of Gripens operational capacity or the description of its costs. It sounded like the description of another aircraft. The industrial cooperation we had promised to create, to a value of up to NOK 50 billion, seemed not to have been of any greater importance.