Saab has signed a long-term agreement with Vangest, the precision-manufacturing group based in Marinha Grande, in Leiria district, to make parts for the Gripen E/F fighter. In a statement issued on 11 November 2026 and reported by ECO, the Swedish company said the cooperation “initially focuses on the industrialisation of eight complex components” for the aircraft, as part of its effort to widen Gripen E/F’s international manufacturing network and raise production capacity.
The deal was also reported by the Portuguese news agency Lusa, the Swedish electronics trade site Evertiq and the aviation site Air Data News. Air Data News notes that the agreement covers eight different components, not a batch of eight parts. Saab has not named the parts or disclosed the contract value, expected volumes or delivery schedule. It has also not said whether the parts will feed its lines in Sweden, in Brazil, or both.
What the two companies said
ECO quotes Johan Segertoft, who heads Saab’s Gripen business, as saying that raising Gripen output “requires strong industrial partnerships” and that with Vangest Saab is expanding its manufacturing network while giving Portuguese industry “a concrete role in the Gripen programme”. Rune Bakke, Vangest’s chief executive and a board member, called Saab “a strategic partner for Vangest Aerospace” and said the work would build capabilities and talent for Portugal’s aerospace sector. (Both quotes are NorthSouth HQ translations of ECO’s Portuguese text.)
Saab said it expects the cooperation to create new skilled jobs in Marinha Grande and the surrounding region, and that the partnership has “significant potential for further expansion in the coming years”.
Who Vangest is
Vangest was founded in 1986 and turned 40 this year. According to ECO (29 September), the group employs about 450 people, roughly 330 of them in Portugal, and also has plants in the United Kingdom and Singapore. In July 2025 it completed the purchase of two British companies, Micro Systems and Optimold, which specialise in high-precision moulds and plastic injection for healthcare. Medical work now accounts for about half of the group’s activity.
The Marinha Grande complex covers 43,000 m², with 25,000 m² of production space in eight buildings. Two of those buildings serve aerospace, which employs about 70 of the site’s 350 workers, ECO reported. Air Data News adds that Vangest has made components for the Embraer KC-390 military transport through OGMA since 2012, and that the OGMA relationship is what led to the first contact with Saab.
Not new, but now formal
The relationship itself was already public. Saab named Vangest as a Gripen supplier when it hosted Portuguese journalists in Sweden in April, alongside Critical Software, Kristaltek and OGMA (NorthSouth HQ covered that list). What the 11 November statement adds is a defined scope — eight components to industrialise — and a long-term framework that, as Air Data News points out, does not depend on what Portugal decides about its own fighters.
The F-16 decision is still open
Portugal flies 28 F-16s that are approaching the end of their service lives. The government has not launched a formal procurement; the replacement is expected to be written into the revised Military Programming Law, due in parliament before the end of 2026. ECO puts the programme at about €5 billion. Saab’s Gripen E competes with the Lockheed Martin F-35A, the Dassault Rafale and the Eurofighter. Air Data News reports that an internal Portuguese Air Force assessment ranked the F-35A first and the Gripen E second, a military recommendation rather than a government decision, and that Lockheed Martin said in October it would invite four Portuguese companies to compete for F-35 structural work.
What it means for the corridor
For Portuguese suppliers, the order of events matters. Saab is placing work in Portugal before any purchase, which turns the Gripen bid into a real export contract for a Leiria-district manufacturer whatever the outcome of the fighter competition. It also gives the companies joining AICEP’s aerospace and defence mission to Sweden on 17–18 November, which includes meetings with Saab, a concrete reference point: a Portuguese metal-parts maker that reached Saab through an existing aerospace customer, OGMA, rather than through a government offset. The open questions are the volumes behind the eight components, and whether they flow to Linköping, to Embraer’s Gripen line in Brazil, or to both.
Sources: Saab statement of 11 November 2026 as reported by ECO (11 November 2026); Lusa via Evertiq (12 November 2026); Air Data News (11 November 2026); ECO (29 September 2026). NorthSouth HQ did not find the statement on saab.com at the time of writing.