Today (2nd of April) is a doubly historic day for the Swedish defense and security company Saab.

While Saab is celebrating its 75th birthday, Gripen fighters from 4 countries participates in the exercise Lion Effort that is currently underway in Sweden.

Saab was founded on April 2nd 1937 based on a decision by the Swedish Parliament that Sweden should have its own indigenous ability to produce its own fighter aircraft. Since then, Saab has been a key player in building an innovation-strong Swedish industry.

“Over the past 75 years, aviation has played a significant role in our business. Up until today Saab has produced more than 4,000 aircraft. Now we are using our 75 years of world class aviation and high-tech engineering to become a truly global player in the defense and security market,” says CEO Håkan Buskhe.

While Saab is celebrating its 75th anniversary Lion Effort 2012 is being hosted in Ronneby Sweden. Lion Effort 2012 will be the biggest Gripen exercise to date. Some 30 Gripen fighters from the Swedish, Hungarian, Czech and South African Air Forces participate. The Royal Thai Air Force participates with a number of observers.

“The family of Gripen users is big and is getting bigger, creating both operational and financial benefits for the users. Lion Effort shows how Gripen operators from different nations can cooperate, train and learn from each others’ experiences," says Håkan Buskhe.

Today, Saab has its own operations in 32 countries, on all continents with nearly 14,000 employees all around the world. The key to our success has been our ability to foresee change and make quick adjustments as well as big investments in research and development.