The Saab Gripen upsets F-35 supporters in NATO

 On April 6, 2025, Micael Johansson, the CEO of Swedish aerospace giant Saab, confirmed that the company is engaged in talks with Portugal to potentially supply JAS 39 Gripen fighter jets.

Photo by Sgt Müller Marin

This event comes amid heightened geopolitical tensions in Europe and a broader debate about the continent’s reliance on American-made military hardware. As Portugal weighs its options, the Gripen emerges as a cost-effective and versatile alternative to pricier platforms like the Lockheed Martin F-35, raising questions about NATO’s future procurement trends and the strategic implications for transatlantic defense cooperation.

SAAB is, reportedly, in talks with Canada and Portugal over potential Gripen procurement, after both countries expressed unease in recent weeks with their programs to acquire US-produced F-35s.

Compared to its competitors, the Gripen E/F offers distinct advantages for a nation like Portugal. The Lockheed Martin F-35A, while unmatched in stealth and sensor fusion, comes with a per-unit cost exceeding $80 million and annual maintenance expenses that can strain smaller defense budgets.

Incidentally a 2023 U.S. Government Accountability Office report noted that only 55 percent of U.S. F-35s were mission-capable at any given time, highlighting the platform’s logistical complexity. 

The Gripen, by contrast, strikes a balance between advanced technology and affordability, with a flyaway cost of around $40 million per unit and a design that reduces maintenance downtime. Its ability to conduct air-to-air, air-to-ground, and reconnaissance missions makes it a changing-role platform well-suited to Portugal’s multifaceted defense requirements.

Could this deal mark the beginning of a broader European pivot away from U.S. systems, or will it remain an outlier in a market still dominated by powerful American companies? Only time will tell, but the conversation itself underscores a critical juncture in the evolution of global air power.

I would put my money on the Saab Gripen. 

Canadians Do Not Want Charles As King

 

Today, a copy of the CBC “Morning Brief” appeared in my eMail describing a new woke survey published by Reuters (Dan Kitwood).  This did not surprise me because, if one searches well enough, a poll may be discovered somewhere indicating a “truth” fitting any narrative  —  but I was somewhat annoyed that Reuters did not choose to value my, or any of my associates, opinion on the matter (“Opinion” only).  

After all, the King of England is, firstly, the choice of English people (More later) and other countries of the Commonwealth however, choose to accept his position as they wish (Technically, not accurate, but you know what I mean).  My point here is that Canadians are, or should be, not part of the decision-making process.  

The title of this article states that 60% of Canadians do not recognize the King while,  a few paragraphs later, they become simply respondents.  

I have written before on the controversial question actually defining a Canadian, and the simple answer is someone qualified to carry a Canadian passport, i.e., not random respondents (Contrary to the whim of our current P.M.).  

Therefore, unlike countries of Communist dictators, and the probability that the banana-republic Canada will become controlled by the CCP … we still have a King, thus immigrants, both legal and illegal, and refugees, real or not, should sit quietly in their government-subsidized apartments … until, if necessary, deported.    

Past readers of Bernie's Blazar will be aware of my deliberately controversial tone, in order to cause discussion … I look forward to the spore. 

Wonderful News -- 30th Governor General of Canada

 Wonderful News

Mary J. May Simon OC OQ

30th Governor General of Canada

 (Inuktitut: Ningiukadluk; born August 21, 1947) is a Canadian broadcaster and diplomat who is the Governor General-designate of Canada. A fellow with the Arctic Institute of North America, she was a producer and announcer for CBC North, and later entered public service as secretary of the board for the Northern Quebec Inuit Association, playing a key role in the Meech Lake Accord and Charlottetown Accord negotiations. Simon was Canada's first Ambassador for Circumpolar Affairs, and was a lead negotiator for the creation of the Arctic Council. She also concurrently served as Chancellor of Trent University and, later, as ambassador to Denmark.

On July 6, 2021, Simon's appointment as Canada's 30th Governor General was announced. She will succeed Richard Wagner, who as Chief Justice of Canada holds the title of Administrator of the Government of Canada.

I Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself (2)

China's pattern of 'sociopathic behaviour'

The prime minister [Canadian] should be congratulated for refusing to be bullied by the People’s Republic of China into returning Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou to China, though she is being detained in Vancouver for extradition on a demand from the United States for alleged commercial offences. And while we should probably extradite Meng to the United States, we should not ratify an extension of the extradition treaty with the U.S., not because of this particular case, but because we should not be sending anyone to a jurisdiction where practically all prosecutions are successful. In its criminal law, the United States is not a society of laws, it is a prosecutocracy, and we should not feed it. Nor should we be concerned about the non-return to Canada of people whom we believe to have committed crimes. If they did, we don’t want them back; if they did not, they should come back and establish that fact. But we should have no part in stoking the fetishistic American criminal justice apparatus.

The Meng case is a side show and no one disputes that China is an important country and a great historic civilization, and few have any desire to withhold from the Chinese the deference due to them as, along with the Indians, the world’s most numerous nationality, and next to the United States, the largest economy in the world.   (Edited for brevity) 

 

China’s Communist government has exploited the coronavirus crisis, which it was itself responsible for inflicting upon the world, as cover for shredding its treaty with Great Britain over Hong Kong and imposing what amounts to a hobnailed jackboot on the windpipe of that splendid and enterprising city.   (Edited for brevity)

This all constitutes a clear and disturbing pattern of sociopathic behaviour and a reversion to Chinese conceptions of their natural right to impose their will on their neighbours, exact tribute from smaller countries and generally require a level of deference to their wishes that’s incompatible with concepts of international law that have arisen and been generally embraced since the last time China was ruled by a strong government, 400 years ago.   (Edited for brevity) 

We are certainly not dealing with another Nazi Germany or even a Soviet Russia.   (Edited for brevity) 

Of course, China has to be accommodated up to a point.   (Edited for brevity)  

Practically the whole world bought into the wishful theory that if China was facilitated in its quest for prosperity, it would become a co-operative and reasonable member at the top table of the family of nations. This was not how Germany, Russia or Japan developed. There is no serious justification for the policy of the Western states led by the G7, including Canada, to have been so indulgent of China’s excesses and provocations for so long. The major countries of South Asia, Australasia, Europe and the Americas should all concert on trade and sanctions policies and related matters, including the reported targeting of some Chinese nationals studying at Western universities to be potential spies. Many of China’s foreign trade and diplomatic posts are simply places of espionage. The United States in particular possesses a vast arsenal of potential measures for achieving its goals with China, including encouraging a definitive statement of Taiwanese independence, raising the American naval presence in the Formosa Strait in the South China Sea, cancelling many or all of the 300,000 Chinese student visas in the United States and closer co-operation in economic and military matters with the leading states in the Far East and South Asia, especially Japan, Indonesia and India. Those and neighbouring countries comprise a huge block whose economic and military strength substantially exceeds China’s. There is a role for Canada as the fourth Pacific Ocean economy (after the U.S., China and Japan), in developing a system of incentives for the world’s major countries to adopt to help the moderate and constructively internationalist forces prevail in Beijing.

Conrad Black -- National Post