Saab Wins SEK 2.9 Billion Order for Sweden’s Future Fighter System

Sweden’s Defence Materiel Administration has awarded Saab an order worth approximately SEK 2.9 billion to continue work on concepts for the country’s future fighter system. The contract covers activity from 2026 through 2028 and includes options for additional work in 2029 and 2030.

Saab said the program will include flying and ground-based demonstrators, advanced studies and the development of both crewed and uncrewed combat-air concepts. The scope goes beyond designing a direct successor to the Gripen. It is intended to examine how aircraft, autonomous systems, sensors, weapons and digital networks could operate as an integrated force.

The order builds on earlier contracts awarded in 2024 and 2025. Those phases allowed Sweden to explore technologies and operational requirements without committing immediately to a single aircraft configuration or an international partnership. The new funding moves the effort further into demonstrator work, where engineers can test assumptions before a full acquisition decision creates far larger costs.

According to Saab, the work will strengthen competence in systems integration, autonomy, signature adaptation, propulsion, digital development and future production methods. Each area reflects a pressure shaping next-generation combat aviation. Low observable design must be balanced against cost and maintainability; autonomy must remain effective under electronic attack; and software must be upgraded much faster than the airframes that carry it.

The inclusion of crewed and uncrewed concepts is particularly important. Air forces increasingly expect future fighters to coordinate with collaborative aircraft that can carry sensors, electronic-warfare equipment or weapons. Such systems could extend the reach of a crewed platform and place risk on less expensive machines, but they also demand secure communications and a high degree of trusted automation.

Sweden enters the program with an unusual degree of sovereign aerospace experience for a country of its size. Saab designs and supports the Gripen family, while the Swedish armed forces and FMV retain close links to domestic research, testing and production. That base gives Stockholm more freedom to choose between an independent program, deeper European cooperation or a hybrid approach.

NATO membership adds another dimension. Any future Swedish combat-air system will need to operate smoothly with allied command networks, weapons and surveillance assets. At the same time, lessons from Ukraine have reinforced the value of dispersed operations, rapid maintenance and resistance to attacks on large air bases—qualities already prominent in Swedish air-power doctrine.

The SEK 2.9 billion order does not settle the shape, cost or entry date of a future fighter. It funds the evidence needed to make those choices with lower technical risk. Saab described that approach as preserving Sweden’s freedom of action, a phrase that captures the strategic purpose of the program: retaining national expertise and bargaining power while the European combat-air market reorganizes around a small number of increasingly complex projects.

For Stockholm, the next three years will be less about unveiling a finished aircraft than identifying which combinations of platforms and technologies can survive, communicate and generate combat effect in a contested Nordic environment.