Lieutenant Colonel Claes Bernander is responsible for the entire Military Flight Training Systems and Planning division of the Swedish Armed Forces. The officer recently spoke to Militär Aktuell on the fringes of the Military Flight Training Conference in London about his own time as a fighter pilot, the decommissioning of the Swedish SK60 and how Sweden now wants to put its pilot training on a new footing together with Denmark, Norway and Finland.
Lieutenant Colonel, in your recent presentation at the Military Flight Training Conference in London, you told how, as a Swedish fighter pilot, you once encountered Russian aircraft over the Baltic Sea. Back then Sweden was still neutral, today the country is part of NATO.
Yes, that was at the end of the 1990s until 2005, I flew the Viggen, and later also the Gripen. Back then, during our missions, we repeatedly encountered Su-27s with up to ten powerful guided missiles; in contrast, we only had 120 rounds in the cannon, nothing else. And then we even visited the Russians in Savasleyka as part of an aviation friendship. That sounds unimaginable today, doesn’t it? It was just as unimaginable back then that Sweden would now have to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is now in NATO. Before the war began, polls regularly showed that 70 percent of the population was in favor of maintaining neutrality, but within a few weeks, public opinion shifted towards abandoning neutrality and joining NATO. At the same time, we are planning our air force future together with the three other Nordic countries – and I am able to contribute to this in the area of flight training.
Like Austria, Sweden flew the Saab-105, known as the SK60 in Sweden, for a long time. After being withdrawn from service in Austria more than three years ago, the aircraft are now also being withdrawn from Flygvapnet without replacement. Why is that? Just because of their age?
Age was of course a decisive factor, but the shutdown was actually necessary for three reasons: There is currently a shortage of instructor pilots and flight instructors to continue operating the system in a serious manner. As in other air forces, numerous “baby boomer pilots” are retiring in Sweden almost simultaneously and it is difficult, if not impossible, to replace them. In addition, considerable investment would now be required to continue operating the system and, thirdly, the SK60 no longer corresponds to what young pilots expect from a modern training system today. The SK60s have no interactive systems, no LVC training environments and tools, so we would only have been able to train pilot candidates up to Phase 3, but no longer up to Phase 4. The bottom line was that all these reasons combined led us to the conclusion that it made more sense to retire the aircraft than to continue operating them.
While Austria now wants to procure a successor to the Saab-105OE after all, Sweden is taking a different approach to pilot training and is cooperating with the International Flight Training School (IFTS) in Italy, isn’t it?
That’s correct, the cooperation concerns phases 3 and 4 of fighter jet pilot training. For phases 1 and 2, we have a very good and economical solution of our own with the Grob-120, but for afterwards we naturally wanted to position ourselves better than before with the Sk60. And so we have now concluded this agreement with Italy for ten years and will be practising there with the T-346 (Italian designation of the M-346 by Leonardo). We don’t yet have a final evaluation of the first course, but I have no doubt that it will be successful. In general, the concept is very modern and fit for the future. https://militaeraktuell.at/allentsteig-unbemannte-abc-gefahrenerkennung/
The aim is for Sweden to join a common training solution for all Nordic countries at the end of the ten years at IFTS, isn’t it?
Yes, that is the wish, which is why we will take a close look at the platforms in question, from the PC-21 right up to the M-346 and its further development. The move to Sardinia will give us time, but also experience, and we will see whether at the end of the day we will procure our own system or find a solution together.
There are several possibilities for such a joint solution, right?
Yes, but we must not forget that we want to train pilots who will fly on F-35s in three countries of the so-called “Northern Air Command” – the “Northern Fist” as we call it – whereas in Sweden we will continue to rely on the Gripen E. A new trainer should therefore already be a jet, at least in the countries that rely on the F-35. But until then, this can of course be handled very flexibly, so that two-seater segments from Phase 3 and 4 can also be “downloaded” on the Gripen D, because the model is clearly more economical than the F-35. However, this requires an entire training system including real and virtual components, and these must be suitable for all four countries. This is not easy, but we are in the process of using the ten years in Italy to find such a solution and to examine how and under what conditions it would be feasible. In any case, the aim is for all training to take place here in the region in future. We have sufficient training and practice areas for this and hopefully also enough flight instructors. But there is no deadline for this, these ten years of Phase 3 and 4 on T-346 in Deci are just our Swedish “breathing space”.
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