The submarines will be built at Saab's shipyards in Karlskrona and Landskrona. But the deal - which also includes weapons systems, training and support - also includes Saab investments of up to 100 million euros in Poland - including to build up capacity for maintenance and repairs in cooperation with Polish industry.
Thousands of jobs - of which 7,000 in Poland - will be created, according to Ulf Kristersson.
Saab needs to recruit
Saab, whose business area Saab Naval currently employs just over 2,500 people, confirms that the deal will lead to major recruitment needs.
"We have already grown significantly for several years and see a continued need to recruit new employees," writes Saab CEO Micael Johansson in an email to TT.
"Thanks to the deal with Poland, we will be able to hire several hundred new employees," he adds.
In Lund and Helsingborg, it is mainly a need for more engineers, while production in Karlskrona and Landskrona mainly needs sheet metal workers, welders, mechanics and electricians - but also some engineers there.
In addition to submarines, the unit manufactures Visby corvettes, combat control technology, sensors, autonomous systems and vehicles both on and under the water surface.
It is a very important deal to secure long-term volume, says Daniel Djurberg, Saab analyst at Handelsbanken, about the deal.
"Now Saab is entering a phase where it can expand and hopefully increase margins in this business area. It's an important piece of the puzzle," he adds.
“Very large investments”
The A26 submarine is the result of intensive and very costly development work since Saab bought back the shipyards in Karlskrona, Malmö and Muskö from the German Thyssen Krupp in 2014.
"Now you can get paid for this enormous investment. Saab and Sweden needed to build this expertise almost from scratch again," says Djurberg.
Kristersson fills in:
Saab has made very large investments and the state has also done so by purchasing two (A26 submarines) ourselves and also half-modernizing two older submarines so that they basically get the same technology, he says.
It's about defending democracy, he adds about the motive for the submarine investments and all the other major defense investments that have been made in recent years.
Corrected: In an earlier version of the text, Saab CEO Micael Johansson's quote was attributed to the wrong sender.
Back in November last year, Poland's Minister of Defense Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz announced that the Polish government had decided on Saab as the supplier of new submarines.
With the signed agreement in place, Saab estimates the value of the submarine deal with Poland at SEK 47 billion and the company's order book for A26 submarines now amounts to five orders: two for Sweden and three for Poland.
In addition to the delivery of submarines to Poland in 2031–2038, according to the agreement, Poland will also be able to lease HMS Södermanland, an older type Swedish submarine (A17), until 2032.
A new bilateral security policy cooperation for the Baltic Sea has also been initiated by the countries' governments, called the Baltic Sea Pact.
Sources: Government, Saab
