Colombia is interesting to buy the Sweden´s JAS-39 Gripen

[tigershark]

Colombia is interesting to buy the Sweden´s JAS-39 Gripen
Today the Vice President of Colombia Mr. Francisco Santos Calderón will arrive for a five day visit here in Sweden. He was most recently here in November.

This visit was supposed to be announced on Sunday but One paper found out and and also claim there's ongoing discussions for a JAS Gripen sale to the country which is even supposed to be the reason for this visit. Several meetings with Saab and Ericsson is said to be planned.

I can't really judge this report... it's a fairly serious news site though.

On Tuesday he is due to meet with Deputy Prime Minister Maud Olofsson which is basically the only top minister left in the country that week. (The Prime Minister and his delegation will be in China and the Defence Minister among others will be in the USA) There's also a state visit from Luxemburg that day...

If Colombia has a imminent need for additional fighters Sweden can deliver JAS 39A and 39B jets almost instantly from a planned surplus inventory. Conversion training is the main delaying factor. The latest version 39C and 39D models would likely take roughly 2 years before delivery.

Information about a industrial networking meeting in North-Norway scheduled for Monday with Saab.


SPOTLIGHT
Saab chief banks on the Gripen jet


Ake Svensson, the chief executive of Saab. (Saab Group)

"I've never seen so much interest as right now," he said during a recent conversation by phone from Stockholm.

"We have a strong position with this fine aircraft."

link

http://www.ab24.no/default.asp?page=5349&item=34049,1〈=1

[SAS73]

Interesting, but I am not sure if Colombia can afford the price of a fleet of Gripens. I know that a single Gripen is around USD$50 or USD$60 millions of Dollars. but there is another situation, right now the weak price of the Dollar could give Colombia a good chance to acquire this excellent aircraft

[Webmaster]

The Swedish Kronor is doing a little bit better than the US dollar, though.

$50-60M a piece sounds about right for the A/B (although they will be cheaper because they're not new), but I think the C/D are up to $75M a piece now, especially for small orders.

[tigershark]

Welcome aboard SAS73
SAS73 provided me with the above JAS-39 information in the first post on this thread and will keep us informed on any updates.  Do you think Colombia could buy both  purchase the Kfir's and down the road Gripen's as well? 

[SAS73]

Well the business of 12 Kfirs C10 is official and 10 of the actual fleet of Kfirs C7  will be upgraded to the C10 version. I think the Gripen could be the best option. I dont know how far are the negotiations, or which other Combat aircraft could face a race to the colombian adquisition for the same money. A Mirage2000 from France will be another good choice but the relations with France and Sarkozy depends on the liberation of Ingrid Betancourt helded by the FARC.
Any way the Gripen issue for Colombia will birng up several debates and discussion, first for the price of a single aircraft and the weapons race with Venezuela.

[tigershark]

Weapons race with Venezuela would be difficult and I don't think Colombia would find too many Mirage 2000's for sale.  I do find these A/B Gripen's a very interesting choice and a lot could be done with them.  I also think the price you and the webmaster mention is in the ballpark.  Going with the webmaster thought process on buying more could bring the price down what if Colombia bought 28 of them?  Could Colombia bring these fighter in around $40 million and then turn around and pump $10 mil plus into a upgrade package?  Does anybody know if there's a weapons systems or simple radar update that could be had for that price range? 

[SAS73]

NEWS

The Swedish Inspectorate of Strategic Products has given Saab the permission to enter negotiations with Colombia for the sale of ERIEYE AEW&C.

It's not a final export permit but on that path... This was granted before the V.P meeting.. and no news what happened then. Not even anything boring.


http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=147&a=760950&rss=1399

http://www.isp.se/sa/node.asp?node=410

[SAS73]

I think that the Gripens will be used as an air superiority fighter. I doubt they would risk them in CAS missions.

Colombia is buying more Super Tucanos and AB212 helos in gunship configuration (2-7x70mm FFAR pods, 1-7.62mm minigun in one door, 1-40mm grenade launcher in other door) for COIN work. I suspect that once the Gripens come online, the Kfirs will be tasked with CAS and interdiction, much as the Israelis did when they got F-15s & F-16s. With FARC on the wane, I doubt they will need any CAS strikes with bombs or nalpalm. I think Colombian COIN aircraft and helos will likely handle any missions against FARC incursions.

[Webmaster]

  I forgot to welcome you! (your nickname is already familar to me  ) Big welcome!

My my, additional Kfirs, Super Tucanos and new air superiority fighters.

Do you have any update on a possible ex-Czech L-159 deal? I think Czech officials offered it to Colombia some time ago? I guess that's off the table now, with the new Super Tucanos and Kfir deal.

[SAS73]

Thanks for your welcome , yeah my nickname could be very familiar to you. I was invited to join this great site by nonpilot.

As far as I know the deal for a COIN aircraft for the Colombian Air Force (FAC) started when the colombian goverment show interest for the Super Tucano. in the Colombian congress started a debate why the Super Tucano was the only choice. So then the FAC has to open a comptetion for the new aircraft. in this open and public competition the FAC recive offers from Czech Republic (L159), South Korea, and obvious Brazil.
Finally the Koreans and the Czechs didnt came up with nothing so the Deal with Brazil were to buy 24 Super Tucanos. Now I see the new interest of the FAC to buy 8 more. If you remind last month news the Super Tucanos participated in the Attack against the FARC leader "Raul Reyes" camp. The Attack was very sucessfull and they used smart bombs, may be GBU laser bombs.

[SAS73]

Sweden green lights SAAB sales to Colombia

"Inspektionen för strategiska produkter" (the Inspection of Strategic Products) has greenlighted any SAAB sales to Colombia, including negotiations for selling the Erieye to Colombia. the article says  "Green light to start negotiations".


Link is in Swedish http://www.dagensmedia.se/mallar/dag...version=159360


Video on SAAB - ERIEYE AWACS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOaxi2G0aNI

Any way I would love to see the Gripen fly over Colombia.
So no new information on the possibility of Gripen's?

Klockan 14.15 i dag landar vicepresident Francisco Santos Calderón på Arlanda för ett fem dagar långt statsbesök.

Besöket har hållits hemligt, och enligt uppgifter till Dagens Media ska avsikten med besöket vara att genomföra förhandlingar om ett eventuellt köp av Jas 39 Gripen. Flera möten med representanter för både Saab och Ericsson ska ha bokats in.

= 14.45 local time today Santos Calderon lands to Stockholm for 5 days visit. Visit has been hold secret but the aim is to buy Saab-39, several appointments with SAAB and Ericsson has been booked.

it can be a long road to get Gripens....but usually money speaks!
And the price of US Dollar going down is a very good thing for imports