Sweden is accelerating plans to equip its Gripen fighter jets with the long-range Taurus cruise missile, giving the air force a deep-strike capability years earlier than expected, the head of the Swedish Air Force has said (via Defense News).
Major General Jonas Wikman said authorities had reprioritised work between industry, the armed forces and Sweden's defence materiel agency to bring the integration forward. Previous plans had set initial operational capability for the German-made Taurus missile on the Gripen C/D fleet around 2028.
The Taurus KEPD-350, developed by Taurus Systems GmbH, a joint venture between Saab and MBDA Deutschland, can strike hardened and deeply buried targets at ranges of more than 500 kilometres. Wikman described the new capability as a "huge step" for Sweden, marking a shift from a traditionally defensive air posture to one that includes long-range offensive options.
Major General Jonas Wikman:
"We have reprioritized and done work to ensure that our industry, FMV, and the Air Force's work on this overlaps as much as possible, resulting in the original timeline shifting left as I am expecting us to be operational at a date considerably earlier than previously planned."
"The capability itself is very important because we haven't had any deep-strike or offensive counter-air capabilities before. We could just put all of our money on defensive abilities, but now that is a huge shift for us."