The Flygvapnet goes spooky...

[ValAstur]

The end of the "Advanced Tactical Fighter" also marked the end to the YF-23 of the consortium composed of Northrop, Grumman and MDD. With the election of the YF-22, the YF-23 became obsolete and the existing frames got mothballed.

The swedish minister of defence Anders Björck, who recognized the potential of the plane and followed the ATF program in the way it was possible to him. He, after gaining knowledge about the fate of the Black Widows, placed a demand inside the swedish parliament, to get into touch with the Pentagon in order to explore the possibilities of acquisition. With the decease of the Soviet Union nevertheless, the swedish parliament wasn't interested in such expensive and politically explosive purchases.

It was eight years later, after the release of the Visby-Corvettes, which are considered to have stealth properties, when Björn von Sydow (then minister of defence in Sweden) brought the idea of having stealth fighters back into speech. He also remembered the petition being made by former MoD Björck years ago. Rising tensions with Russia, violating the swedish airspace now and then, let the politicians rethink their position towards the construction or acquisition of stealth planes. Since the US would never export the Raptor, efforts were made to obtain the Black Widow. A formal petition note from the swedish government was handed to the US government. Severe concerns about the transition of technology were pronounced and a team of experts and engineers from the Skunkworks was consulted. Though not being a potential enemy and always having been neutral, this kind of technology and the posibility of getting the wrong hands onto it, made the crucial organs in the US administration doubt about if it would be the right decision to sell these aircraft to Sweden.

More than ten months passed since the request of the purchasing of the aircraft. After that space of time, Stockholm received green light for the purchasing of the aircraft, but under limitations. It was only allowed to get the airframes. These got stripped of all technology, both stealth and other military equipment. They also were allowed to get the frames in a primed state, without any traces of paint which aided in absorbing radar waves. Final condition was the ban on export of the aircraft resulting from the swedish efforts in getting an stealthy aircraft themselves.

SAAB and a team of scientists inmediately got into work to adapt the existing airframes to the necessities as stated by the government.

In 2007, when SAAB presented the first airframe, returned to an airworthy state, scepticism arose among the government. But when the aircraft took off and the military demonstrated the potential of this aircraft, scepticism was nowhere to be seen. Existing orders for the Gripen were reduced in favor of the J-40 Vålnad (Ghost).

 

SAAB J-40 Vålnad, F7 Såtenäs, 2008

[dsawan]

Cool, hoping for a release