Saab, Kongsberg again post record years on European defense splurge

PARIS — Saab and Kongsberg kicked off the European defense industry earnings season Friday, posting another year of record sales growth and orders in 2024, as governments across the continent continue to ramp up military spending in the face of Russian aggression.

Sweden’s Saab, the maker of the Gripen fighter jet and the Carl-Gustaf recoilless rifle, reported orders jumped 24% to 96.8 billion Swedish kronor (US$8.9 billion) last year, raising the backlog to a record 187 billion kronor. Orders included Gripens for Hungary, radar systems, air defense, GlobalEye surveillance planes and a record order from Poland for the Carl-Gustaf.

Defense and aerospace orders at Norway’s Kongsberg jumped 44% to 54.4 billion Norwegian kroner ($4.85 billion) in 2024, boosted by the company’s largest-ever missile order from the U.S. Navy, and a Dutch purchase of air-defense batteries. The order book in defense and aerospace jumped to 101 billion kroner at the end of December, up 54% from a year earlier.

Finland’s Patria reported orders jumped 33% to €1.26 billion in 2024, lifted by demand for the company’s 6-wheeled armored vehicles, for a backlog of €2.38 billion by the end of December. Kongsberg owns 49.9% of the company, with the Finnish government owning the remainder.

Global military spending has been surging in a context of deteriorating peace and security, with spending in 2023 rising for a ninth year to $2.44 trillion, according to the latest annual data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Europe is one of the regions with the biggest increase in defense outlays, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“There are tensions and stuff like that, which makes it an unusually difficult time to predict what’s going to happen going forward, but we see a strong continued need for defense capabilities definitely, and a strong market going forward,” Saab CEO Micael Johansson said in a call Friday.

The Saab CEO sees defense spending in Europe rising regardless of decisions regarding the NATO alliance and joint European programs. The NATO summit in The Hague in June will be “very interesting to see where the ambition level will be put when it comes to targets,” Johansson said.

NATO alliance members including the U.S., U.K. and Poland say the alliance target to spend at least 2% of GDP on defense is not enough, and the summit is expected to set a higher threshold. Defense spending by European Union countries was expected to reach a record €326 billion in 2024, from €279 billion a year earlier, the European Defence Agency reported in December.

International business now accounts for 72% of the backlog at Saab, from 64% a year earlier, according to CFO Anna Wijkander. At Kongsberg, the defense and aerospace order book was padded by deals with the U.S. Navy and the Netherlands, and air-defense systems for Lithuania.

“Given the current situation, it is likely that NATO countries and Norway’s allies will continue to invest in and strengthen their defense capabilities,” Kongsberg said. “There is a high demand for Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace’s core products such as air defense, missiles, and weapon stations.”

Kongsberg said it will start construction of missile factories in the U.S. and Australia in 2025, and position itself for Norway’s upcoming renewal of its frigate fleet.

Regarding future business at Saab, the company is negotiating a Gripen contract with Thailand, and has interest for the fighter from Colombia and Peru, according to Johansson, who also mentioned additional Gripens for Brazil.

The company is campaigning to sell its GlobalEye surveillance aircraft in the Nordic region, southern Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and is also trying to get NATO interested in the GlobalEye, as the Boeing E-3 is “more and more going into a difficult phase” regarding availability, according to the CEO. The fleet of E-3 aircraft operated by the U.S. Air Force failed to meet availability targets in any of the 11 years through to 2020, according to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office in November 2022.

Saab has a team of more than 100 people working on the future fighter concept, including unmanned capability, which Johansson said he expects to be the next step to complement the Gripen going forward. France in October kicked of development of an unmanned wingman drone for the competing Rafale fighter.

“Of course over time, in the 2050s, we need to have a new solution for a possible manned fighter,” the Saab CEO said. “We will fly a number of systems over the next few years, which will be unmanned to start with.”

Johansson said margins in Saab’s aeronautics business are being affected by delays to starting up the T-7 Red Hawk jet trainer program in the U.S., which he said will take “another couple of years before we sort of see that turning around.”

“We’re a bit dependent on when the U.S. Air Force will contract Boeing to really start ramping up production,” the CEO said. “There will be production ongoing, but on a rather low level, until the testing is done with Air Force, and Boeing gets the contracts.”

Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.

巴黎——萨博和康斯伯格周五拉开了欧洲国防工业财报季的序幕，公布了又一个创纪录的销售增长和2024年订单，与此同时，面对俄罗斯的侵略，欧洲各国政府继续加大军费开支。

生产“鹰狮”战斗机和“卡尔·古斯塔夫”无后坐力炮的瑞典萨博公司报告称，去年订单额增长24%，达到968亿瑞典克朗（约合89亿美元），积压订单总额也创下1870亿瑞典克朗的历史新高。订单包括向匈牙利交付的“鹰狮”战斗机、雷达系统、防空系统、“全球之眼”侦察机，以及波兰创纪录的“卡尔·古斯塔夫”无后坐力炮订单。

挪威康斯伯格公司2024年的国防和航空航天订单额增长44%，达到544亿挪威克朗（约合48.5亿美元），主要得益于该公司从美国海军获得的有史以来最大的导弹订单，以及荷兰购买的防空电池。截至去年12月底，该公司的国防和航空航天订单总额已达1010亿挪威克朗，较上年同期增长54%。

芬兰帕特里亚公司报告称，受其六轮装甲车需求旺盛的推动，2024年订单额增长33%至12.6亿欧元，截至12月底，积压订单额达23.8亿欧元。康士伯集团持有该公司49.9%的股份，芬兰政府持有剩余股份。

在全球和平与安全局势日益恶化的背景下，全球军费开支持续飙升。根据斯德哥尔摩国际和平研究所最新发布的年度数据，2023年军费开支连续第九年增长，达到2.44万亿美元。继俄罗斯2022年入侵乌克兰之后，欧洲成为国防开支增幅最大的地区之一。

萨博首席执行官迈克尔·约翰逊周五在电话会议上表示：“目前存在一些紧张局势等等，这使得预测未来走向变得异常困难，但我们肯定看到对国防能力的持续强烈需求，以及未来强劲的市场前景。”

萨博首席执行官认为，无论北约联盟和欧洲联合项目做出何种决定，欧洲的国防开支都将持续增长。约翰逊表示，6月在海牙举行的北约峰会“将非常有趣，届时我们将看到各方在目标设定方面会设定怎样的雄心水平”。

包括美国、英国和波兰在内的北约成员国表示，北约设定的国防开支至少占国内生产总值2%的目标远远不够，预计此次峰会将设定更高的门槛。欧洲防务局去年12月发布的报告显示，欧盟国家的国防开支预计将从前一年的2790亿欧元增至2024年的创纪录的3260亿欧元。

据萨博首席财务官安娜·维坎德 (Anna Wijkander) 称，国际业务目前占萨博积压订单的 72%，高于一年前的 64%。在康斯伯格，与美国海军和荷兰的订单以及为立陶宛提供的防空系统，都为国防和航空航天领域的订单储备提供了助力。

康斯伯格表示：“鉴于当前形势，北约国家和挪威的盟友很可能会继续投资并加强其国防能力。市场对康斯伯格防务与航空航天公司的核心产品，例如防空系统、导弹和武器站，有着很高的需求。”

康斯伯格表示，将于 2025 年开始在美国和澳大利亚建造导弹工厂，为挪威即将进行的护卫舰舰队更新做好准备。

关于萨博未来的业务，据约翰逊透露，该公司正在与泰国谈判鹰狮战斗机的合同，并且哥伦比亚和秘鲁也对该战斗机感兴趣，他还提到巴西也将采购额外的鹰狮战斗机。

该公司正积极在北欧、南欧、亚洲和中东地区推销其“全球之眼”（GlobalEye）侦察机，并试图吸引北约对“全球之眼”的兴趣。据首席执行官称，波音E-3预警机的可用性“正日益陷入困境”。美国政府问责局2022年11月发布的一份报告显示，截至2020年的11年间，美国空军运营的E-3机队从未达到过任何一项可用性目标。

萨博公司拥有超过100人的团队，致力于研发未来战斗机概念，其中包括无人作战能力。约翰逊表示，他预计这将是未来与鹰狮战斗机形成互补的下一步发展方向。法国于10月份启动了与萨博竞争的阵风战斗机的无人僚机研发项目。

萨博首席执行官表示：“当然，随着时间的推移，到了2050年代，我们需要为可能的有人驾驶战斗机找到新的解决方案。未来几年，我们将试飞一系列系统，最初都将是无人系统。”

约翰逊表示，由于美国 T-7 红鹰喷气式教练机项目启动延迟，萨博航空业务的利润率受到了影响，他表示，这种情况还需要“几年时间才能有所好转”。

“我们很大程度上取决于美国空军何时与波音公司签订合同，才能真正开始提高产量，”首席执行官表示。“在空军完成测试并获得合同之前，生产将会继续进行，但规模相当低。”

鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者。他的职业生涯始于彭博新闻社，拥有报道科技、大宗商品市场和政治方面的经验。