In 2021, Canada's fighter competition narrowed to two contenders. One was Lockheed Martin's F-35, representing the world's largest military power, the United States. The other was Saab's Gripen, from Sweden, a country of barely 11 million people. The American F-35 programme is projected to cost over $2 trillion across its lifetime. Sweden's entire annual economy is worth approximately $669 billion. Canada ultimately chose the F-35. But a Swedish manufacturer reaching the final competition against such an enormous American aerospace programme tells an extraordinary story. To understand why, go back nearly ninety years. > The year is 1936. > Europe is moving towards another devastating war. > Sweden has advanced steelmakers, shipyards and weapons manufacturers. > But it lacks the domestic capacity to produce modern combat aircraft at the scale it needs. > Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson recognises the danger of foreign dependence. > Establish Saab in 1937. > World War II begins, and Sweden remains neutral. > Build factories, train engineers and begin accumulating aviation expertise. Then the war ends. The industry created to protect Sweden must find new reasons to keep its factories running. > Military demand becomes uncertain. > Venture into automobiles and civilian aviation. > Fly the Saab 29 Tunnan jet fighter in 1948. > Begin producing the Saab 92 automobile in 1949. > Develop the Lansen, followed by the supersonic Draken. > Continue investing in increasingly sophisticated military aviation. > Enter a technological field dominated by much larger industrial powers. But Saab's ambitions are beginning to extend far beyond conventional aircraft manufacturing. > Advanced fighter development demands enormous aerodynamic calculations. > Begin developing computers in the 1950s. > Put the SARA computer into operation in 1957. > Expand into commercial computing and banking systems. > Develop increasingly sophisticated aircraft electronics. > Introduce the Viggen, incorporating advanced digital computing. > What began as an aircraft manufacturer is accumulating expertise in software, electronics and complex systems integration. And then Sweden makes one of the biggest technological gambles in its industrial history. 1982 arrives. > Commit to developing the JAS 39 Gripen. > Bring together Saab, Volvo, Ericsson and other Swedish industrial specialists. > Approve a programme framework worth SEK 25.7 billion in 1981 prices. > Integrate digital flight controls, advanced avionics and sophisticated weapons systems. > Design a fighter capable of operating from dispersed road bases with small crews. > Then the first prototype crashes in 1989. > Another Gripen crashes during a demonstration in 1993. > Serious flight-control problems demand extensive corrections. > Keep testing, refining and developing. > Eventually bring Gripen into operational service. But while Saab is mastering one of the most demanding fields in engineering, its commercial foundations are beginning to fracture. > The Cold War ends. > Defence budgets contract across Europe. > Saab's regional passenger aircraft business is losing money. > Hundreds of aircraft have been manufactured, yet the economics are deteriorating. > In 1997, decide to abandon regional aircraft production. > Set aside roughly SEK 4 billion for restructuring. > End production in 1999. > Leadership later acknowledges that continuing those losses could have endangered the entire company. This is where Saab demonstrates something just as important as its technological ambition. It understands that preserving industrial expertise does not mean preserving every business that once helped develop it. > Concentrate resources on defence and advanced engineering. > Integrate Swedish weapons expertise through the acquisition of Celsius. > Acquire Ericsson Microwave Systems in 2006. > Strengthen the radar technology needed for advanced airborne surveillance. > Acquire Kockums in 2014, bringing submarine engineering under Swedish industrial ownership. > Continue developing Gripen into the more advanced Gripen E. > Build GlobalEye surveillance systems by integrating sophisticated sensors with aircraft platforms. > Evolve into an enterprise spanning combat aviation, electronic warfare, missiles, radar and submarines. And then the very problem that created Saab begins returning to Europe. Russia invades Ukraine in 2022. > Europe faces depleted stockpiles and limited military production. > Decades of low defence spending have weakened supply chains. > Rebuilding specialised manufacturing takes years. > Saab already possesses generations of engineering expertise. > Global demand for its defence technologies accelerates. > In December 2025, Saab's order backlog reaches SEK 274.5 billion. > By September 2026, it climbs to SEK 364 billion. > Nearly ninety years after its founding, Saab is expanding production. > And Sweden, with barely 11 million people, still builds advanced fighter aircraft. Remember 1937? - Sweden created Saab because it understood something that remains just as relevant today. During peacetime, buying advanced weapons from abroad may seem easier than spending decades developing them yourself. - But when war arrives, foreign supplies are no longer guaranteed. Even trusted allies have their own armies to equip and shortages to overcome. - Sweden never achieved complete independence, nor did every gamble succeed. But generations of governments and leaders continued investing in capabilities too important to lose. Because buying advanced weapons is one thing. Possessing the knowledge, factories and engineers to keep producing, repairing and improving them when your country's security depends on it is something entirely different.