And in the middle is Saab

Vincent J. Curtis

16 Feb 21

Sweden and Finland are deeply alarmed by Russia.  At a press briefing on February 16^th, Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist  outlined causes for concern: the pressure Russia is exerting on the Baltic states, in the Ukraine, in Syria, and especially by the seizure of Crimea.  Swedish and Finnish air patrols interdict Russian aircraft on a weekly basis, and note similar encounters near British, Canadian, and U.S. air spaces.  Russia has poisoned dissidents abroad, and conducts disinformation campaigns against neighboring states, which, in the view of Sweden, are actions of a hostility, and in violation of the Helsinki Final Act of 1975.  Sweden will be expanding its defense budget by forty percent between 2021 and 2025 to raise the level of deterrence, and will expand defense cooperation arrangements.

The Swedish government representatives did not regard war with Russia as some distant, theoretical possibility, but as a distinct reality that demands a high level of vigilance.

 The relationship between Sweden and Russia goes back a long way.  Sweden became a great European power in the early 17^th century under the rule of the great warrior-king Gustavus Adolphus in the Thirty Years War.  Gustavus is considered by some to be the first modern general and the inventor of combined arms tactics.  The Thirty Years War produced the Treaty of Westphalia, which introduced the idea of the nation-state and International Law.

Sweden’s decline from great power status began, ironically, under another great warrior-king, Charles XII, at the beginning of the 18^th century.  A brilliant tactician, Charles XII routed Russian armies two and three times the size of his, but his downfall was in strategy.  He exhausted his army and his country in the wars against Russia.  By the beginning of the 19^th century, Sweden lost that portion of its territory known as Finland to Russia after its defeat in the Great Northern War of 1808-09.  Czar Alexander I took Finland as his personal duchy, separate and distinct from the Russian Empire as a whole.

Finland was then sparsely populated.  A Finnish national identity took root among the educated classes in the last quarter of the 18^th century, and burst into full flower in the middle of the 19^th century.  Hence, in 1917, a Republic of Finland declared its independence after the Bolshevists overthrew the Czar of Russia, and their Grand Duke.  Finland fought a civil war between Reds and Whites, the Whites won, and Finland remained independent of the new Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union, under Stalin, invaded Finland in 1939, forcing Finland’s surrender in 1940.  After Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Finland fought the Continuation War against the Soviets until her fortunes declined with that of Germany.  Finland again surrendered in 1944 and, in addition to losing about one third of her national territory, had to pay war reparations to Russia.  Ironically, this forced Finland to modernize her economy, and made her a wealthy country by the 1970s.

Sweden has been a neutral country since 1814.  Sweden stayed out of World War I and II, and remains non-aligned to this day.  Finland adopted a non-aligned but pro-Soviet foreign policy after World War II to protect her independence.

Culturally, Finland is descended from Sweden.  Street signs in the capital Helsinki are in both Finnish and Swedish.  Beyond a few relics from the czarist era, there is almost no Russian cultural influence in Finland.  Finland has national service, and is able upon mobilization to put 350,000 troops into the field, and they aren’t expected to be used against neighbour Sweden.

Sweden and Finland form a natural alliance of the non-aligned against Russia.  Sweden is separated from Russia both by the territory of Finland and the Baltic Sea.  Finland is Sweden’s first line of defense, and forms Finland’s strategic rear.  Joint operational planning with Finland, interoperability, and the advantages of the two countries being so close and of sharing the same equipment were emphasized by deputy commander of the Swedish Air Force, Brig-Gen Anders Persson.

Which brings us to Saab, Sweden’s leading defense supplier.  Persson emphasized the need for Sweden and Finland to be technically and tactically superior to Russian forces.  Finland is looking to replace its aging fleet of Hornet fighter aircraft, and Saab wants to sell its Gripen E/F fighter, combined with something new – Globaleye - an Airborne Early Warning and Control system along with it as a force multiplier.

More of the qualities of the Gripen came to light during the press briefing.  Persson called the Gripen “the iPhone of the fighter community”, in reference to its capability and ease of use.  Gripen really is designed to be flown off two-lane highways in the north of both countries.  It has a refuel and rearm turnaround time of fifteen minutes.  Routine maintenance is intended to be done by conscript mechanics.  More major overhauls can be done in hours.  The Gripen was designed to defeat the Su-30/35 and the Su-57 in air-to-air combat, and is expected to remain tactically relevant into the 2060s.  Economy and availability – meaning lots of sorties - are prominent advantages of the Gripen over other fighter types, according to Saab.

Saab’s Globaleye was intriguing.   It is designed to work closely with the Gripen E/F.  It is an AWACS system that is mounted on an ultra-long range Global 6000 aircraft from Bombardier.  The system has a detection range of 550 km of aircraft at normal altitudes and 450 km for low flying aircraft.  It has a mission time of over eleven hours. Saab president Micael Johannson said that Globaleye can defeat stealth.

Though the Gripen is already working in tandem with NATO AWAC systems, Globaleye was designed from the ground up to complement the capabilities of the the Gripen in the Nordic theatre against a Superpower.  A tactical vision seems to have guided the design of the Gripen-Globaleye arrangement.

Like Saab’s proposal to Canada, the proposal to Finland offered to expand that company’s current research relationship with Finnish universities and its research center in Finland.  Saab’s capabilities should not be underestimated; it began as an aircraft company in 1937 and has delivered over 5,500 aircraft over the years to customers around the world.

Besides making clearer the advantages of a purchase of Gripens, the Globaleye adds an interesting wrinkle to the Saab portfolio, and the RCAF may want to look at Globaleye as a possible complement to a Gripen purchase.

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