I wrote a report in January about this topic, looking at the history of the Canadian defence aviation industry. Saab's proposal is largely going to be for licensed domestic production of the Gripen fighter. Most countries have moved away from this model. If you look at our allies, they are going towards joint production, as with the Eurofighter and the F-35.
My view is that, with licensed production, the quality of job you get is not very high. It's usually an approach that doesn't really engender a lot of follow-on production, because you're only producing it to your standards. Some of the quotes out there say that it's...somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 jobs. I don't think that is credible at all. If you look at the production Saab does at Linköping, which is where they produce fighters, it's around 4,000 or so. If you look at Brazil, which is doing assembly on the Gripen, I think only several hundred jobs are currently there.
I don't take those as credible numbers.
Thank you.