Saab may build Gripen fighter jets in Canada to speed Ukraine deliveries
October 30, 2025
Swedish aerospace firm Saab is exploring the establishment of a final assembly and testing facility in Canada to help accelerate deliveries of its Gripen E fighters, a move prompted by Ukraine’s interest in purchasing a large number of the aircraft.
Saab’s chief executive, Micael Johansson, told The Financial Times that the company is actively seeking production partners and new hubs beyond its existing lines in Sweden and Brazil.
With Kyiv signalling interest in 120–150 Gripen E aircraft, Saab says it must quickly scale its manufacturing capacity.
A Canadian assembly line, Johansson suggested, would provide an efficient route to produce and test aircraft close to North America’s logistics and industrial ecosystems.
“Expanding into Canada would give us an additional hub to ramp up deliveries rapidly,” Johansson told the newspaper. “It makes sense commercially and politically: Canada has the skills, the supply base and the geopolitical interest to support such a build-up.”
Why would Saab pick Canada for a Gripen assembly line?
Saab’s overture to Canada is shaped by more than factory space. Ottawa is currently reviewing its own fighter procurement, a high-profile C$19 billion deal for 88 F-35A aircraft.
While the contract remains firm for the first 16 F-35s already funded, the Canadian government is reassessing whether the remaining 72 jets align with its long-term defence priorities.
That political uncertainty offers Saab a window of opportunity. By promising local assembly, deep industrial offsets and a Canadian-run Gripen centre for sustainment and upgrades, Saab is pitching not just aircraft but jobs, sovereignty and a domestic aerospace cluster.
Its earlier Gripen for Canada plan proposed centres for fleet management, cyber resilience and R&D, elements that resonate with Ottawa’s desire for domestic capability and control over mission systems.
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly welcomed discussions at the Canadian Aerospace Summit, recently noting that Ottawa had been working with Saab on partnerships that began with the GlobalEye surveillance plane.
Saab Canada’s president, Simon Carroll, described the country as “an important market to support increased global demand” and signalled the company’s intent to expand local operations.
Yet critics warn that a mixed fleet – partly F-35, partly Gripen – would complicate training, logistics and NORAD interoperability.
US officials have cautioned Ottawa about potential costs and complexity. Saab counters that its proposal was designed to meet NORAD and NATO interoperability requirements, and that local ownership of mission systems offers a sovereign path that some Canadian politicians find appealing.
Saab’s Gripen plan for Ukraine: scaling fighter jet production and supply chains
Ukraine has signed a letter of intent with Saab that opens the door for Kyiv to acquire up to 150 Gripen E fighters. If confirmed, it would represent the largest single export order for the type and would demand a rapid scale-up in production.
Saab has indicated that augmenting its Swedish and Brazilian lines with a Canadian final-assembly facility would materially speed deliveries and ease logistical bottlenecks.
Officials in Stockholm have even floated the idea of using frozen Russian assets to help finance the programme, while political talks continue over how much risk and cost should be borne by Sweden and allied partners.
For Saab, a Canadian production line would reduce single-point concentration and spread industrial risk across friendly jurisdictions, a persuasive argument in the current geopolitical climate.
The Gripen’s operational profile makes it particularly attractive for Ukraine: light, highly maintainable, able to operate from short or dispersed runways, and designed for rapid turnaround. Ukrainian officials value the Gripen’s adaptability and the relative speed with which crews can be trained.
Gripen E: Flexibility, maintenance, and dispersed operations
The Gripen E is a fourth-generation multirole fighter designed for resilience and low total cost of ownership. Powered by the GE F414 engine and equipped with an AESA radar, IRST sensors and advanced electronic-warfare systems, the aircraft is optimised for fast upgrade cycles through a modular software architecture.
Saab says a Gripen can be refuelled and rearmed rapidly by a small ground crew, making it well-suited to operations from improvised strips or dispersed bases.
For Ukraine, that blend of capability, simplicity and maintainability is a clear advantage. For Canada, the Gripen’s Arctic suitability and modular design are compelling, provided Ottawa is willing to consider a non-stealthy but highly agile alternative to the F-35.
