MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian Air Force will receive several SAAB J-39 fighters later this month

The next batch of Gripens will be sent to Brazil by sea, landed at Santa Catarina and then flown to Sao Paulo

By the end of the year, the Brazilian Air Force will have received several J-39 Gripen combat fighters from Sweden's SAAB aerospace, avionics and defense consortium, part of the agreement signed in 2014 by Brazil for the purchase of 36 of these jets, following a complicated bidding process.

The J-39 Gripens will be transported by sea at the end of November, following on the same logistic route as the first unit which was sent to Brazil just over a year ago, with the Portonave private terminal in Navegantes, state of Santa Catarina, as gateway to Brazil.

The ship’s voyage between Sweden and Brazil takes just over 20 days, and while the documentation part is still in the port, the fighters will be towed through the city streets to the Ministro Victor Konder airport, approximately two kilometers away.

From the airport in Navegantes, the fighters will be prepared to fly and will depart by their own means to a FAB airbase in Gavião Peixoto in Sao Paulo, where they will finally begin their integration with the Brazilian Air Force. During their entire stay in Navegantes, from the port to the airport, the aircraft will be escorted by soldiers from the Brazilian Air Force.

In addition to the first fighter received in 2020 and the two that should land in Brazil this year, Portonave may still receive another 18 J-39 Gripen units. In all, 36 fighter jets were acquired by the Brazilian government in 2014, with the last units of the batch to be built on Brazilian territory, according to the technology-transfer contract signed with the SAAB consortium.

At one point Argentina was interested in purchasing the Gripens built in Brazil, but since they have several components supplied by UK's BAE and the Martin Baker ejection pilots seat system, the possibility of a deal fell through.

According to Agencia Brasil, the country chose the Swedish model over US Boeing and France's Dassault because of the technology transfer and industrial cooperation for the development and production of the 36 Gripen fighters.

Some 350 Brazilians —engineers and technicians—actively work in the technological transfer program, which includes training programs in Sweden, Saab reported. In 2016, Gripen’s Project and Development Center was inaugurated in São Paulo state, where Brazilian and Swedish engineers work together. If everything goes as planned, all 36 jets will be delivered by 2024.