Saab leader questions fragmented Nordic defence procurement

For the first time in history, all Nordic countries are members of NATO and part of the same defence planning structure.

That should create new opportunities for cooperation between governments, armed forces and industry, says Fredrik Gustafson, Head of Group Business Development at Saab. 

He points to Finland and Sweden's NATO accession, the war in Ukraine and growing pressure on Europe to strengthen its own defence capabilities.

- I think all those things together create a totally different foundation for cooperation, Gustafson said in an interview with Defence Nordic

Yet despite increasingly aligned security interests, the Nordic countries continue to make major procurement decisions largely on their own.

Gustafson pointed to ongoing frigate programmes across the region as an example.

Finland selected its future warships years ago. Sweden recently chose the French-designed FDI frigate. Norway is pursuing its own replacement programme through a British solution, while Denmark is still on the fence.

The result, Gustafson noted, is that countries sharing maritime borders and security challenges are moving towards different fleets.

- Indeed, not fully identical Operational requirement for all the countries, now you have four countries with joint maritime borders and possibly four different frigates, he said. 

Missed opportunity

While stopping short of criticising individual decisions, Gustafson argued that greater commonality could strengthen Nordic resilience.

- If you have commonality, if you have a supply chain concentrated to the Nordics where you have some kind of mutual interdependence, I think you would have created a stronger Nordic resilience, he said.

According to Gustafson, the same arguments increasingly used to promote European defence industrial cooperation can also be applied at the Nordic level.

- The same way we discuss strengthening European defence industry and European supply chains, you can use the same argumentation in the Nordics, he said.

As defence spending rises across Northern Europe, Gustafson believes the political and military foundations for closer cooperation are now in place.

The question, he suggests, is whether Nordic procurement will eventually reflect that reality.