What Pakistan’s Defence Planners Get Wrong About Self-Sufficiency Plus Pro

Last month, the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine interviewed Saab’s CEO, Micael Johansson, about the company’s programs in general and, in particular, its efforts in the German market.

Saab AB is a notable defence original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in that its platform offerings are more the result of original design and integration work than of indigenous sourcing. In fact, at times, one can use Saab AB and Sweden interchangeably, as the OEM operates solely on the basis of its country’s core industrial strengths and a pragmatic supply-chain sourcing approach.

The methodology is grounded in the reality that Sweden cannot develop and/or feasibly scale all the inputs required for a complex defence platform, such as a fighter aircraft.

For example, if it attempted to develop the turbofan engine, flight control systems, alloys, electronics, and all munitions from scratch, indigenously, the best-case outcome would be a high-cost product that it could not amortize because it would never generate sufficient orders.

Hence, over the decades, Sweden – or Saab AB – gradually shifted its focus to becoming a strong, if not among the world’s strongest, integrator.

For example, Sweden’s 2025 Defence Industry Strategy formalizes an integrator-centric approach by identifying specific “strategic” materiel categories – e.g., combat aircraft, underwater platforms such as submarines, command-and-control, and cartridge ammunition – and calling for partnerships and industrial measures centred on those categories rather than on indigenizing every input.

A recent – and fast-growing success story – of this example is the GlobalEye platform. The aircraft platform, surface-facing radar, and many other inputs are sourced from abroad.