Saab Defense

Today we visited The Saab Aerospace and Defense headquarters. The company sits on top of a mountain on the outskirts of Gothenberg with amazing views of the city. When many people think of Saab they believe it’s an ex car manufacturer. But really Saab has many different divisions other then car manufacturing. In fact, Saab sold off their car division 10 years ago to Ford. One of the most amazing divisions Saab has is the fighter aircraft. Sweden is the smallest country to produce its own fighter jet. The Gripen fighter jet is a state-of-the-art fighter that Saab hopes many foreign countries will purchase.

The Vice President of project Global Eye was kind enough to give us a tour of their manufacturing facilities for radar surveillance. Lexy 8

The production facility was huge, with multiple stories and large rooms. We had to wear special ESD (Electric static discharge) clothing involving booties and a jacket to protect sensitive equipment. In the manufacturing facility they produced a variety of different radar components at different stages. At the end of the the assembly process they install the radar units on to heavy duty trucks and sent to different countries. It was amazing to walk through the radar systems after they have been completed. One such vehicle Saab had just competed was a $50 million dollar Giraffe radar system for the British military.

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Saab has a separate radar division within the U.S for U.S military radar production. The main components of radar system are built at the Saab factory in Gothenburg and are then transferred to the U.S Saab. At the Saab facility in the U.S they then install classified military hardware to the radar system. This allows Saab to penetrate the U.S markets while still keeping the technology the U.S government needs classified.

Saab also sells their products to many different countries around the world. One in particular who demands Saabs products to work immediately when delivered is South Korea. This has been a benefit for Saab because it forces them to create the product and proper package, and then ship it so that it can be set up immediately, while other defense companies that make similar products require a lag time after delivery for setup and proper use to occur. Saab has become very efficient on how they produce, send, and ship their products because of the high demands that are placed on them from different countries that rely on their products and services for military protection.

For such a big company with highly specialized products that sells their devices to countries, were not sure how Saab would market these since it is a very different product that you cannot sell to ordinary people. Interestingly enough, we learned that Saab uses many of the same marketing channels that many companies use. They advertise and market through Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. They attend air exhibitions to show their new products and to keep in touch with clients. Their marketing team is pulling back from advertising in magazines and newspapers and moving to more digital marketing.

Visiting Saab Defense made for an experience we will never forget! It is not everyday that you get to visit a company that focuses on ways to protect people all over the world. Thank you Saab for a wonderful experience!