Saab Reaffirms Gripen Offer to Netherlands, Refutes Lockheed Comments
(Source: Gripen International AB; issued Oct. 16, 2009)
(This letter was sent to all members of the Dutch Lower House’s defense committee)
Reaffirmation offer from Gripen International in respect of the supply of 85 Saab Gripen NG fighter planes for the Royal Netherlands Air Force to refute (media) statements of Lockheed Martin
Dear Member of Parliament,
Enclosed, please, find the offer from Gripen International for the supply of 85 Saab Gripen Next Generation fighter airplanes as a successor to the F-16. We have presented this offer to you and the Dutch government in April 2009.
We feel the need to reaffirm this offer to contradict statements of the CEO of Lockheed Martin, Tom Burbage, this week in several newspapers.
In reaction to the question of a Volkskrant journalist that “Dutch politicians would like to see a fixed price for the JSF. Can you give one?” Burbage answers:
‘When the Dutch are ready to order, in 2011 or 2012, there will be contracts on the table with a fixed price. When you hear about fixed prices (like competitor Saab, ed.), without a detailed description of the product, you have to look at the presumptions behind it.’
We attach great importance to transparency and we wish to emphasize that our offer contains a detailed description of our product without any presumptions behind it.
Furthermore Tom Burbage says that ‘if you agree to a fixed price when the project still entails high risks, that price can be considerably high.’
By offering a fixed price Saab takes the risks and the Dutch Government knows what product it will get at what price. By setting a fixed price only in a later stage the Dutch Government but forcing the Dutch Government into further participation in the programme by means of buying two test planes, a considerable share of the risks lies on the side of the Dutch Government.
Another large advantage for your country is that we offer you a guaranteed price for the purchase and life cycle costs, so that you will know, not only now but also for decades to come, what you can expect in terms of costs.
We have based our offer on 85 airplanes as this is what your Ministry of Defence has requested. Needless to say we are prepared to make the Netherlands an offer for any other quantity your country may deem suitable on the same terms, with a guaranteed fixed price for the purchase and life cycle costs.
The Saab Group guarantees an industrial offset of at least 100%, which is a guaranteed injection of billions into the Dutch economy and will result in thousands of jobs. Changing the quantity of airplanes in a Dutch request for Gripen NG has no consequences for the industrial offer, unlike Lockheed Martin who threatens that ‘Dutch avionic industries are at risk of losing big orders when the Dutch Cabinet decides not to buy the JSF, or at least not the planned 85.’
We wish you much wisdom in your decision-making and thank you for your willingness to listen to our arguments.
Yours sincerely,
Bob Kemp
Senior Vice President
(EDITOR’S NOTE: The 85 Gripen NG aircraft and related equipment are offered at a fixed price of 4,792 million euros at April 2008 economic conditions.)
Click here for Saab’s letter to Dutch MPs (see above; 2 pages in PDF format);
http://new.isoshop.com/dae/dae/articles ... 009_UK.pdf
Click here for the detailed Gripen offer to the Netherlands (13 pages in PDF format) hosted by defense-aerospace.com.
http://new.isoshop.com/dae/dae/articles ... 170409.pdf
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