According to swedens biggest business paper, Dagens Industri, Saab and Ericsson are close to be cleared for a sale of Saab surveillance system to Pakistan.

Source: http://www.di.se/Nyheter/?page=%2fAvdelningar%2fArtikel.aspx%3fArticleID%3d2004%5c10%5c22%5c121457%26words%3dpakistan (in Swedish)

According to other media in Sweden, it’s supposed to be Erieye-equipped Saab 2000 planes, and that the reason for the swedish governments sales approval should be that this deal is to be considered as a non-weapon system sales. Weapon deals with Pakistan or India is considered as extremely sensitive in Sweden because of the two countries history of conflict.

regards,
Castor

Edit: Updated the source.

Dear Distiller, how about some self criticism?

Do you honestly think that a country like Czech republic, who’ve been occupied by the Soviet Union for more than 50 years, can consider the US as a friendly country – when you try to threaten them? (Note: I’m referring to when Mr Craig Stapleton, former US ambassador in Prague, threatened the Czechs that choosing Gripen instead of F-16 would damage the relationship between US and Czech republic for a long time.)

Do you honestly think that countries like Norway can feel well treaten by US government and Lockheed when they pay you millions of dollars for the development of Joint Strike Fighter. Yet, they haven’t got a singel offset deal. And most likely, they are to get a downgraded version where they ought to be completely reliant upon the US for maintenance.

I could give you more examples. This GPS vs. Galileo thing being the most obvious of how the US acts like the schools biggest bully.

Have you ever heard of the french revolution, or do they just teach american history in the US? Let me just mention what it was all about; liberté, egalité et fraternité. (Ok I’m giving you a hint since I presume you white american boy doesn’t give a damn about those sissy european languages. It means freedom, equality and brotherhood.)

Until the day you start treating the europeans as your equal brothers, and understand our wish to remain independent you’ll see the EU continue to steer their alienating course.

Castor

“… but what about its air-to-ground capabilities? Two rails, four pylons and one hardpoint (?) are hardly enough to provide a substantial strike capability.”
– If you’re in for the old fashioned ground pounding, there’s always a possibility to use twin store carriers. That gives you 8 Mk 82’s on four pylons, for example.

“And what about the range?”
– It’s a bit shorter than for the corresponding F-16 (and Mirage). But there’s an in flight refueling probe.

“Am I right if I say that the primary purpose behind the Gripen is to provide air superiority with a secondary light attack/strike capability?”
– Think Taurus KEPD350, DWS 39, RBS 15, Maverick, Mk82 for starters.

regards,
Castor

A-29 and Primer:

F-16 MLU will probably not be the only option for a lease.
You might want to check out the deal that the Czech Republic got when they decided to go for swedish Jas-39 Gripen C/D instead of F-16’s from USA or BeNeLux. Instead of twenty years old F-16’s with a lot of flight hours they got brand new Gripens and a offset deal at about 100% or so.

If Brazil is interested in leasing they could get swedish airforce Gripens (surplus) of the same kind as the Czechs got. That means brand new C and D models.

I think the secretary of defence in Sweden, Leni Bjorklund, has pointed out that somewhere between 60 to 120 Gripens are considered surplus. If that woman and the social democrats will remain in power for another 3 or 4 years, I’m pretty sure you could get the entire swedish airforce for a bargain price – or a couple of white flags. 🙂

Sigh. :rolleyes:

Yet another “PAF purchases this and that” thread.

Now, could you possibly understand the difference between PAF wants to buy Erieye and PAF buys Erieye? We saw the same thing about Gripen, and we all know how that “deal” ended up.

So pretty please, with sugar on top, could you label these threads correctly?

Castor

Edit: Spelling

Is Bagdad-Bob = Kamran Khan?

Let’s just make a couple of things a bit clearer before commenting the article:

1. The production lines for the Saab 340 and Saab 2000 were closed for more than 5 (five) years ago. That was the end of Saab civil aviation.

2. The swedish S100B Argus EAW aircraft are based on the Saab 340 aircraft together with an Ericsson Erieye radar. Not Saab 2000.

And here goes the credibility of the report:

“The seven SAAB 2000 that will replace the ageing Fokkers on the PIA’s heavily subsidised socio-economic routes will help the airline save about Rs 200 million on the subsidised routes that cost the PIA about Rs 400 million every year.

Because of the composite nature of the deal, the PIA would pay only $45 million for the seven SAAB aircraft as against the $98 million for the French ATR and $91 million for the American Dash-8 that will cost about $98 million.

For its part the Swedish government has provided a guarantee for the smooth supply of SAAB spare parts as long as the aircraft is flown anywhere in the world, the PIA sources confirmed. Six hundred of such planes are being flown all over the world.“

3. There are NOT 600 produced Saab 2000 aircraft, but there might be 600 Saab 340 aircraft.

“Pakistan had first shown interest in the purchase of AWE&CS from Sweden in 1995 when the then Pakistani prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, had visited Stockholm and had requested the then Swedish premier, Olf Palme, to approve the sale. “For nine years we have tried to secure these aircraft from SAAB/Erricson,” said an official source.”

4. Olof Palme was assassinated ten years earlier.

Perhaps they’re gonna buy that Brooklyn Bridge as well? 😀

@PAF FAN:
Didn’t see your reply until now, but your’e correct mate. I wrote Pakistan but as soon as I saw my error I corrected it to India (regarding the Bofors deal).