Overview
- The first Gripen E assembled at Embraer’s Gavião Peixoto completed a production-acceptance maiden flight flown by a Saab test pilot to gather systems and flight data ahead of certification and delivery to the Brazilian Air Force; the jet is registered as FAB 4109.
- This aircraft is the first of 15 Gripen Es to be produced in Brazil under the 2014 contract for 36 fighters and is the first Gripen airframe built outside Sweden.
- Embraer and Saab say the flight demonstrates growing local industrial capability because Brazilian engineers and technicians have been integrated into assembly, integration and flight-test work as part of the technology-transfer program.
- A Heads of Agreement between Embraer and Saab frames talks on a potential follow-on purchase of 20 additional Gripen E/F to be built in Brazil, but the amendment to the original contract has not been finalized.
- Independent reporting has warned of program delays, estimating only about one-third of the planned fleet delivered so far and projecting as few as four deliveries by 2027, a gap that could complicate short-term force planning and budgets for the Brazilian Air Force.