Sweden’s Saab has confirmed it is in active discussions with the Portuguese Navy (Marinha Portuguesa) on installing its RBS15 anti-ship missile system on the three Vasco da Gama-class frigates currently in service, and on the new frigates Portugal will fund through the European Union’s SAFE defence loan programme. The disclosure widens the Swedish defence pitch in Portugal well beyond the Gripen E fighter and the OGMA aerospace package that has dominated the headlines so far.
The talks were confirmed publicly by John Belanger, the Saab executive responsible for the RBS15 development programme, in remarks reported by Portuguese business outlets ECO and Executive Digest on April 23, 2026. Belanger described Saab as already “in conversations” with the Portuguese Navy on integrating the RBS15 onto the existing Vasco da Gama frigates and onto the future surface combatants Portugal will procure under the SAFE allocation.
The numbers behind the pitch
The RBS15 is a long-range, sea-skimming surface-to-surface and air-to-surface missile developed jointly by Saab in Sweden and Diehl Defence in Germany. Saab markets the current Mk4 variant as having a range in excess of 300 kilometres and a launch weight above 200 kilograms, with active radar terminal seeker and sea-skimming flight profile. The system is operated by the Swedish, German, Polish and Croatian navies, among others, and it is one of Europe’s few homegrown long-range anti-ship missiles.
For Portugal, the immediate question is the upgrade of the Vasco da Gama-class. The three Meko 200 PN frigates — commissioned in the early 1990s — are reaching the back end of their service life and currently carry the legacy Harpoon Block 1C anti-ship missile. Belanger’s remarks position the RBS15 as a credible mid-life upgrade option, with the Mk4’s longer reach, networked targeting, and modern electronic counter-counter-measures suite as the technical pitch.
Why the SAFE allocation matters
The longer-term prize is the new frigate programme. Portugal is one of the eight EU member states that received an implementing decision under the European Commission’s SAFE (Security Action for Europe) instrument, with €5.8 billion in low-cost loans earmarked for defence-industrial investments. A meaningful share of that envelope is expected to flow into the Marinha’s next-generation surface combatant, which will replace the Vasco da Gama-class over the late 2020s and early 2030s.
SAFE loans come with industrial-cooperation conditionality designed to channel spend toward European primes and EU-based supply chains. Saab, as one of Europe’s few full-stack naval missile manufacturers, fits the SAFE eligibility logic almost by design. So does its existing willingness to localise industrial work in Portugal — the same logic Saab has been advancing through its OGMA and Critical Software memoranda of understanding on the Gripen E fighter.
A widening Swedish footprint
Two days earlier, Saab also reaffirmed its Gripen E proposal to the Portuguese Air Force, with vice-president Daniel Boestad telling Portuguese reporters that the company sees real industrial potential in OGMA and Critical Software for sub-assembly and pilot training systems. The RBS15 disclosure adds a naval domain to a pitch that previously read as primarily aerospace.
Taken together, Sweden is positioning itself as a multi-domain defence supplier to Portugal at a moment when Lisbon is choosing between US, French, Italian and Nordic primes for its next-decade modernisation. For Saab specifically, the Portuguese Navy is a smaller revenue line than Gripen E, but it carries political weight: a missile sale would lock in Saab’s relationship with the Marinha for at least a fifteen-year service window.
What to watch
Three near-term signals matter. First, whether the Marinha Portuguesa includes the RBS15 in any public Request for Information or pre-tender notice for the Vasco da Gama mid-life upgrade. Second, the architecture of the SAFE-funded new frigate programme — specifically, whether Portugal opts for a European Patrol Corvette derivative or a larger frigate platform, and which combat-management system is selected. Third, whether Saab announces a Portuguese industrial partner for missile-related sub-assembly, mirroring the OGMA model in aerospace.
None of these are decided. Portugal’s defence procurement process is famously deliberate, and the Marinha will weigh the RBS15 against incumbent Harpoon successors, the Norwegian-American Naval Strike Missile, and France’s Exocet MM40 Block 3C. But the disclosure that conversations are already happening moves Saab from outsider to credible bidder — and reinforces the broader story that Sweden, more than any other Nordic country, is now treating Portugal as a multi-domain defence customer.