Norwegian-Swedish industrial projects cancelled
When Norway chose the U.S. Joint Strike Fighter as its new fighter jet, nearly all of Swedish Saab’s planned business projects with Norwegian partners were called off.
Jan Nygren, a consultant working for Saab on the marketing of Jas 39 Gripen Next Generation in Norway told the Swedish paper Ny Teknik that 95 percent of all planned Norwegian-Swedish joint industrial projects will be called off after Norway chose the U.S. Joint Strike Fighter as its new fighter jet.
Saab had planned 156 projects together with 80 Norwegian companies at a total cost of about 50 billion NOK over 10-15 years. If only five percent of these projects are realized, Norway will miss out on 47,5 billion NOK.
- Some defense related projects and projects on home security have potential for realization, but we now have to concentrate our resources on selling Gripen to other countries, says Magnus Lindberg in Saab. Among the projects that still can be carried out, are the Nordic Climate Cluster on renewable energy, NOCC, and production of cables to Gripen at Natech in Narvik, Norway.
