Saab has responded to the announcement concerning the acquisition strategy for the Future Submarine program that has frozen Sweden out of the competition.
The company argues that with more than 100 years of submarine development history it has the demonstrated capability and capacity necessary to be able to offer a competitive solution that would meet Australian requirements, while building the boats in Australia.
“Saab has delivered six submarines since 1996, the latest of which was commissioned in 2013; all involved significant numbers of design and production engineers with the same skills used in any new submarine build process,” stated Gunilla Fransson, senior vice president and head of security and defence solutions.
“If government policy on this matter changes, we stand ready to offer our capabilities to Australia and move forward with a proposal. Saab is also a supplier of leading-edge submarine and underwater subsystems, and we are ready to engage in any discussion on these technologies.”