By N. C. Bipindra

New Delhi: Swedish defence major Saab AB will showcase its next-generation Light Anti-Tank Weapon (NLAW) that it supplied to Ukraine in the Russian war at the AeroIndia 2025, though this weapon system is not on offer to India.

The NLAW widens the opportunity for Saab, which has in the recent couple of years successfully supplied the AT4 lightweight man-portable weapon system to the Indian Army, a contract it signed in 2022.

NLAW is a shoulder-launched overfly top attack anti-tank missile system, called a tank-killer, for infantry dismounted operations. AT4, a fully disposable weapon system, has been internalised by the Indian Army and would be used by the Indian Air Force too.

Saab also announced that it would operationalise its 100% foreign direct investment factory in Jhajjan, Haryana for the Carl-Gustaf M4 man-portable weapon system by early 2026. The company’s manufacturing facility is coming up but the industrial license is awaited, according to the company officials.

The Carl-Gustaf facility in India is the first such 100% subsidiary of a global arms major and the approval for the project had come through in 2024.

“We have completed the delivery of the AT4. Work at our Haryana facility (on the Carl Gustaf weapon) is on and we are waiting for the industrial license. We hope to start manufacturing early next year,” Saab India’s chairman and managing director Mats Palmberg said.

Palmberg was speaking to the media at a press conference here on Feb. 6, 2025, ahead of the AeroIndia to be held in Yelahanka air base in Bengaluru from Feb. 10 to 14, 2025.

“We look forward to wide-ranging discussions with the Indian Air Force on our Gripen E offer,” Palmberg said, referring to the impending several billion dollars worth big ticket tender for the purchase of 114 combat jets to shore up the IAF’s falling squadron strength.

India is precariously holding on to about 30 combat squadrons against the sanctioned strength of 42 squadrons, extending the life of the now obsolete Soviet-era MiG-21 supersonic fighter aircraft, which is in the last stage of a phase-out.

“We can deliver the first Gripen E aircraft to the IAF within three years of the contract with indigenous content,” Saab’s Gripen campaign director for India Kent-Ake Molin said.

Molin promised that Saab would set up a full-fledged manufacturing facility in India with full technology transfer, and said that Saab has the experience of doing so in Brazil with Embraer.

Saab is also now engaging with Indian defence sector firms to identify partners for its key ‘Make in India’ projects, including Gripen and Carl-Gustaf.

“We will also be engaging with Indian industry for Make in India as well as for discussions on expanding our sourcing from Indian companies which have emerged as suppliers to the world’s foremost aerospace companies,” Palmberg said.

Saab would also present its r-TWR, a deployable digital tower including the TactiCall Voice Communication System and Giraff 1X lightweight surveillance system, at AeroIndia. The r-TWR is a product that the company is pitching to the Indian armed forces to act as an air traffic control on the battlefield.

Palmberg said r-TWR could be operated hundreds of kilometres away from the battlefield and the system would take about an hour to set up. The system can be transported to the border areas by the C-130J aircraft from the US firm Lockheed Martin already in IAF service.

Visitors to AeroIndia 2025 will be able to witness a full-scale replica of the Gripen E and its cockpit simulator, apart from the Carl-Gustaf M4 weapon system at AeroIndia.

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