24 Comments
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TanyaFella's avatar

I cheer for Ukrainian victory, and as a serial classic Saab vehicle owner, I love this article intensely.

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Thomas Holm's avatar

Me too! Had 8 SAABs in 30 years.

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Erik Gerdin's avatar

Actually, they were two different enterprises but with the same culture.

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Roger Corbett's avatar

SAAB are better known for their very underated cars, but the Ukraine airforce should be flying Grippens.

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Wes O'Donnell's avatar

I agree. But I’m kind of partial to the Gripen. Personally, I think it could give the F-35 a run for its money.

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Gotch A Putin's avatar

Said it day 1, Gripen best aircraft for Ukraine by a country mile (2,500 yards 😏)

Trouble was, all the production slots were already allocated back then

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Rob steffes's avatar

Looks pretty to me! Drones are the 21th century Molotov cocktails (a Finnish invention from the Russo-Finnish war of 1940 BTW). Thank heavens the Finns and Swedes joined NATO, just in time for trumps threats to ensure defense expenditures will now be going to nonUS defense contractors like Saab.

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Canadian Returnee's avatar

Ukraine needs all the weapons it can get. Even experimental ones are worthwhile, given this conflict is showing what works and what does not in the future of warfare.

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Richard Careaga's avatar

The Apollo 13 mindset applied to war.

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Greg Sanford's avatar

Thank you for adding to my HOPE Bank

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Greg Sanford's avatar

I remember driving a Saab in the 60's and having to add oil to the gas

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Gotch A Putin's avatar

2- stroke, of course you did. And they used to win rallies too!

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JG's avatar

Excellent detail as always Wes, thank you 👍

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Joachim Sammer's avatar

Thanks for sharing. Will certainly use Loke as an example for modular design, reuse, and effective innovation.

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Hans Torvatn's avatar

Impressed with the Swedes. (Not an easy comment from a Norwegian)

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That old Scottish git.'s avatar

Bootstrapping an effective weapon system is what you do in wartime.

Saab proving to be a lot more effective and a lot less greedy than some defence industries we could mention.

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Craig Applegath's avatar

Great article Wes! SAB needs to get these beasts down to Ukraine as soon as possible!

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Anders's avatar

Happy to see that Tata motors, sorry LandRover are part of it

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news2lose's avatar

Please remember that at the start of WWII, American magnetic torpedoes didn't work, but we didn’t know because they were so expensive that they had never been field tested. Nor did Norden bombsights… for WWII successes, think of the Haskell boats, the Ford B24, the Kaiser merchant ships. We once were good at innovation. Now our basic industries are holdovers from WWII-Korea…. literally 75 years old.

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Jeffrey Fosse's avatar

Fantastic!

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Hans Boserup, Doctor of Law 🇩🇰's avatar

Loke appears in Norse mythology as one of the Aesir, although he is of giant lineage. He lives in Asgard and is respected by the gods because he has mixed blood with the king of the gods, Odin. Loki's relationship to the gods varies from myth to myth: in some he helps them, in others he appears as their opponent.

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Hans Boserup, Doctor of Law 🇩🇰's avatar

Loke—a name borrowed from Norse mythology’s god of mischief

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