While focusing on Gripen E, Saab is also looking at “What comes after next”

Saab has released new images of one of its future combat air concepts, though this is just one of many such concepts, highly provisional and representing one of a number of ‘directions of travel’ and one that may never see the light of day.

F-series copy

But the KFS project is just a study, and not a fighter programme, and one of its goals is to provide the evidence needed to support a future decision on which path should be taken to secure Sweden’s combat air capability when the Gripen E/F will be retired (“What comes after next?”). The project will inform Sweden’s decisions as to whether the nation will develop an indigenous next-generation fighter or join (or rejoin) an existing project, or even buy an aircraft ‘off the shelf’ from a foreign supplier.

Some believe that a wholly Swedish development programme could be prohibitively expensive, jeopardising other critical defence investments, and that International partnerships might represent a more cost effective option.

Some believe  that Sweden is already moving toward some form of international co-operation, probably either within a “European or Euro-Japanese framework.” But a wholly Swedish solution is favoured by others, who would want to prioritise

national defence needs, industrial and employment considerations, and indeed Sweden’s future as a technologically advanced nation.

They would leverage the nation’s Gripen experience, and the work carried out on the Swedish Highly Advanced Research Configuration (SHARC), an experimental UAV, and its involvement in the French Dassault nEUROn.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Saab’s heavyweights and senior leaders remain bullish that the company should and will continue to design and build combat aircraft.

Lars Tossman, Saab’s head of aeronautics, has pointed out that Saab is uniquely well placed to build a new combat aircraft for Sweden, thanks in part to its mould-breaking exploitation of digital engineering techniques, and to the experience it has gained in the Gripen E, GlobalEye, and T-7A programmes.

Peter Nilsson, Head of the Advanced Programmes Business Unit at SAAB Aeronautics said that: “Saab and Sweden building fighter aircraft is not going to end with the Gripen. Whether we join someone else or go on our own, there will certainly be something following.” Nilsson believes that concerns about the costs associated with developing a new fighter indigenously are misplaced, and points to the development of the JAS 39 Gripen in the 1980s, when similar doubts were raised, but were overcome by collaborating with multiple international partners while maintaining control over the overall design process within Sweden.

Saab launched new studies following Sweden’s withdrawal from the UK-led FCAS system at around the time that the Anglo-Italian-Japanese GCAP project was launched. Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson explained that GCAP did not align with Sweden’s timeline or strategic requirements. Sweden hopes to replace the Gripen in about 25 years — in about 2050. This is a longer timeline than is planned for the Anglo-Italian-Japanese GCAP and pan-European SCAF/NGF programmes, both of which aim to field a manned fighter within their planned ‘system of systems’ between 2035 and 2040.

Sweden had therefore launched a national Future Fighter System (FFS) study in July 2023, aiming to develop its own air dominance system of systems, and this became the Koncept för Framtida Stridsflyg (or Konceptet Framtidens Stridsflyg or KFS), this translating to Future Combat Aviation concept. A Swedish official had confirmed that Sweden had left the programme and was no longer involved in trilateral studies with the UK and Italy in November 2023.

The FFS/KFS was aimed at replacing the Gripen when it retires in 2050-2060. Nilsson said that any new aircraft would differ significantly from the Gripen, with a particular emphasis on low observability, autonomy, and electronic warfare capabilities. Concept CGIs released so far seem to show a single-engined aircraft smaller than today’s Gripen, which might explain why Sweden left the Tempest project!

Saab received a formal order from the Försvarets Materielverk (FMV, the Swedish defence procurement organization) for future combat aircraft concept studies on 22 March 2024, with the directive that these would include both “manned and unmanned solutions in a system of system perspective, technology development and demonstrations.” The contract period was defined as 2024-2025, though it is now being extended.

New and disruptive technologies were expected to form an important part of the KFS system, and Saab’s collaborators included the FMV, the Swedish Armed Forces, the Total Defense Research Institute, and GKN Aerospace. Saab will conduct research into advanced materials, artificial intelligence, and low observable technologies, as well as submitting design drawings for a demonstrator (not an operational prototype) by the end of 2025. Over much the same period, GKN Aerospace, which produced the RM12 (F404) and RM16 (F414) engines for the JAS 39 Gripen, will investigate innovative solutions for powering (and cooling) the new fighter. GKN Aerospace’s centre in Trollhättan has received a €59.5 million investment to expand its additive fabrication technology capabilities.

The first ‘concept exploration’ phase will transition to a second ‘concept, technology and demonstration development’ phase that is scheduled to run from 2026-2030, with full development following that. The FMV will complete its initial concept analysis by 2029.

The concept phases form part of a wider Swedish programme, which is expected to run over the next six to seven years or more.

Peter Nilsson, Head of the Advanced Programmes Business Unit at SAAB Aeronautics has discussed the company’s KFS concepts at a number of events and on a number of platforms.

At the The Wings of the Future seminar in July 2024 he gave a presentation titled ‘Utveckla för framtiden’ (‘Develop for the Future’), which included a fascinating graphic showing a tailless aircraft with modular forward fuselage sections, one manned, and one unmanned.

On August 24, 2024, in an interview with Dagens Nyheter, Peter Nilsson, Saab’s Head of Advanced Programs, confirmed that Saab was looking at both manned and unmanned fighter concepts as solutions to the Swedish Armed Forces requirement for a sixth-generation combat air platform.

Most recently, Nilsson was interviewed by Karin Airaksinen on the SVT Nyheter TV channel, in a piece which went out on 16 December 2024.

Nilsson said that Saab is hoping to draw upon “common DNA” to develop a future combat aircraft ‘ecosystem’ (an ecosystem of systems, if you will), with a family of crewed and multiple uncrewed future combat aircraft.

Nilsson showed a number of powerpoint slides on his laptop. These included a ‘system of systems’ labelled as the Saab F-series, complete with the strapline: “Same brain in different bodies.” The SVT broadcast made it clear that this F-series was just one of the options that Saab is studying.

These included a Manned future fighter; a subsonic ‘Un-crewed’ platform with a weight of less than five tons; the existing Gripen E manned multi-role fighter; a supersonic uncrewed platform with a weight of more than five tons; and a low-cost subsonic uncrewed platform with a weight of less than one ton.

The manned future fighter bore some resemblance to a Saab wind-tunnel model of a supersonic, stealthy ‘Loyal Wingman’ UCAV concept tested in the L2000 wind tunnel at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, in Stockholm. The aircraft had a trapezoidal wing and a prominent LERX, and canted twin fins.

The smaller supersonic UAV had an F-35-like configuration, but with much larger tailfins and no horizontal stablisers. The one tonne low-cost subsonic uncrewed platform, looked like a subsonic cruise missile, albeit with a longer wingspan and a more capacious fuselage, suggesting that it might be some kind of remote carrier or longer-endurance persistent ISR/comms relay aircraft.

The larger supersonic uncrewed platform bore some resemblance to the modular manned/unmanned concept shown during ‘The Wings of the Future’ seminar, and may have been exactly the same aircraft illustrated in the Nilsson Dagens Nyheter interview.

This was shown in more detail in other powerpoint slides, and in CGI illustrations issued by Saab.

The multiple crewed and uncrewed platforms of the Saab F-series are intended to use some shared elements, with a notably high degree of commonality between the existing Gripen E and the larger of the supersonic uncrewed platforms. These have a common engine, avionics and ‘vehicle systems’, but with the unmanned aircraft having a new stealthy airframe, a new digital backbone, new comms systems, sensors and AI.

The supersonic uncrewed platform has a highly blended wing and fuselage, and a broad flat underside, well optimised for weapons bays, and with plenty of volume for fuel. The aircraft is fitted with F-35 type intakes and has an unusual fairing where a single tailfin might be, and a similar ventral fairing.

Such a high degree of commonality could help to speed development times and drive down costs, while reducing the in-service maintenance and logistics burden.

Questions remain as to whether an all-Swedish future fighter programme is viable, and whether Sweden will not have to join forces with other national or collaborative programmes or buy an off-the-shelf aircraft or system. And Saab’s plan is for the new aircraft to be financially viable, even without any exports. “It’s a tough sport to sell fighter jets,” Peter Nilsson says. “We probably shouldn’t develop aircraft if we have to sell them to others to make ends meet!”

Though he does recognise that Saab needs to be: “quicker from thought to flight.”

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