Argentina’s Defense Minister Agustin Rossi announced on Oct. 21 that his government would purchase 24 Saab Gripen E fighters.
So far, so good for Saab.
But as my colleague Andrew Chuter at Defense News pointed out, Rossi’s announcement seemed to ignore a likely insurmountable hurdle to the sale: Britain, its longtime foe, has a near veto on the export of the combat jet as a result of the substantial number of UK systems in the jet.
It turns out that more than 30 percent of the new version of the Gripen being developed by Saab is supplied by British industry, Andrew reported.
That includes key portions of Gripen such as the active electronically scanned array radar, landing gear, ejection seat, electronic system and other sub-systems. All would be affected by a 2012 British ban on military exports to Argentina.
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Photo above courtesy/copyright Saab