STOCKHOLM — The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) told Breaking Defense that a formal signing ceremony is expected to take place later this month to mark Thailand’s acquisition of additional Saab JAS 39 Gripen fighter jets. The event will involve representatives from FMV, the Swedish government, Saab, and Thai officials.
“At this time, I do not have any more information to give about the details of this,” FMV spokesperson Lukas Linné said today, adding that the deal is not finalized until the contract is signed at the ceremony.
On Tuesday Thailand’s cabinet formally approved the purchase four Saab JAS 39 Gripen E/F fighter jets from Sweden, valued at 19.5 billion baht ($550 million), to join its current fleet of 11 Gripen C/D fighters. The decision is a part of a broader initiative to procure 12 Gripen E/F jets. In June the Royal Thai Air Force also announced that Thailand will be acquiring the Meteor long-range air-to-air missile and upgrading its fleet of Saab 340 Airborne Early Warning aircraft.
Today Saab declined to go into details of the contract negotiations such as the number of aircraft, order value, or other aspects of the discussions.
“The discussions are ongoing” between the FMV, the Thai government, and Saab, as it is a government-to-government acquisition process, Saab spokesperson, Mattias Rådström, told Breaking Defense. “We hope to conclude these discussions shortly.”
“It is, of course, very positive news for Saab and for Sweden that Thailand continues to show strong interest in the Gripen E/F as its future fighter jet,” Rådström said.
The status of the program had somewhat been thrown into question after Thailand reportedly used Swedish-supplied Gripens in a recent conflict with Cambodia at the end of July, triggering a Swedish government examination of the case, as Breaking Defense reported last week.
The government was “closely monitoring developments in the border conflict,” Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said at the time, without confirming the deal was still on track.
Swedish regulations on the export of military equipment are highly restrictive. According to the current regulations, permits should “not be granted to states engaged in armed conflict with another state.”
However, the current regulations are under review due to Sweden joining NATO last year, as the regulations reflect Sweden’s history of being officially non-aligned to any military alliance for more than 200 years.
According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) analyst Pieter Wezeman, Sweden has previously supplied 12 Gripen C/D to Thailand “knowing that Thailand had major issues with neighbours Cambodia and Myanmar, an internal violent conflict, and even though the Thai military played a very questionable role in the problematic democratic development in Thailand.”
That shows that the “Swedish arms export regulations have been interpreted broadly,” he told Breaking Defense.
The Swedish state agency The Inspectorate of Strategic Products (ISP) told Breaking Defense that it cannot comment on individual cases or assessments of specific recipient countries due to confidentiality.
During the review process, “a comprehensive assessment is made of all circumstances relevant to the case, based on defense and security policy reasons that support approval and foreign policy reasons that argue against approval. Such an assessment includes, among other things, whether the recipient country is involved in armed unrest or armed conflict,” ISP spokesperson Pernilla Åström stated.
Breaking Defense has reached out to the Foreign Ministry for comment on the contract’s signing, but the ministry has not yet responded.
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Author: Jonas Olsson
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