Brazil’s F-39 Gripen Closes Anápolis Exercise as Colombia Order Looms
BRAZIL · DEFENSE INDUSTRY
Saturday, May 30, 2026 — 03:00 BRT — By Lachlan Williams
—The exercise: The Brazilian air force closed the ESCUDO-TÍNIA 2026 joint exercise on Friday at the Anápolis air base, with more than 1,000 military personnel involved.
—The Gripen debut: The F-39 Gripen flew its first joint-exercise sorties at the new central-west operational base, a deliberate departure from the long-running southern setting.
—The export angle: Colombia signed a $4.3bn contract in November 2025 for 17 Gripen E/F aircraft, with deliveries between 2027 and 2032.
—The Embraer factor: Saab and Embraer have discussed Brazilian-assembled components for the Colombian deliveries, potentially anchoring a regional production hub.
—Latin American impact: The Gripen has now anchored both Brazilian and Colombian air defence in a Saab-led regional aerospace footprint.
The Brazilian air force closed its largest joint exercise of the year on Friday at the Anápolis air base in Goiás, with the Saab-Embraer F-39 Gripen making its debut in the operational training programme. The Gripen Anápolis deployment marks the first major exercise the country has staged outside its southern fighter bases and lands while neighbouring Colombia prepares first payments on a $4.3bn order for the same Swedish-Brazilian fighter.
Inside the Gripen Anápolis exercise
The ESCUDO-TÍNIA 2026 joint exercise ran from May 11 to May 29 at the Base Aérea de Anápolis (BAAN). The training brought together aircraft from the army, navy, and air force, with the F-39 Gripen, A-1M, A-29, F-5M, E-99, KC-390 Millennium, and C-105 Amazonas operating alongside ground anti-aircraft and command-and-control units.
More than 1,000 military personnel participated. The exercise included scripted air-defence missions, composite air operations, and combined ground and aerial deployments around the central-west region of Brazil. It is the first time the joint exercise has been staged outside the country’s traditional southern fighter bases at Canoas and Santa Maria.
The choice of Anápolis reflects the F-39’s full operational capacity at the base, which has been retooled to host the new fighter. The base is now Brazil’s primary alert station for central-west and Federal District airspace, with a permanent quick-reaction alert role since February 2026.
The Saab-Embraer Gripen Anápolis platform
The F-39 Gripen is the Brazilian designation of the Swedish JAS 39 Gripen E/F, built by Saab with Embraer as the partner for Brazilian-assembled units. The aircraft is a generation 4.5 fighter with active electronically scanned array radar, modern electronic-warfare suites, and the Meteor beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile.
Brazil ordered 36 aircraft in 2014 for around $5.4bn, with Embraer‘s Gavião Peixoto facility in São Paulo state doing final assembly of around 80 percent of the fleet. Deliveries began in 2019 and the air force expects the full fleet by 2027.
The KC-390 Millennium tanker, also built by Embraer, was certified for in-flight refuelling of the Gripen earlier this year. The pairing creates a fully Brazilian-Swedish operational stack that is unusual in the world fighter market.
The Colombia Gripen order and the Anápolis link
Colombia signed the contract for 17 Gripen E/F aircraft in November 2025 in Cali, replacing the country’s aging Israel Aerospace Industries Kfir fleet. The deal includes 15 single-seat Gripen E and two twin-seat Gripen F variants, with deliveries scheduled between 2027 and 2032.
The Saab value is around €3.1bn ($3.6bn) and Colombian government estimates of the all-in package reach $4.3bn including infrastructure, training, and weapons. The first payment of around COP$100bn ($25m) was scheduled for 2026.
Embraer has been positioned by Saab as a potential partner for some of the assembly and component work on the Colombian order. The model would replicate the Brazilian arrangement at smaller scale, with Colombian technicians training in Anápolis and Gavião Peixoto during the delivery period.
The Anápolis hub and what comes next
The Anápolis air base is now the operational anchor for the F-39 in Brazil. The base sits about 175 km from Brasília and has been undergoing infrastructure upgrades since 2022 to handle the new fighter, including hangars, ground-support systems, simulators, and a Saab-Embraer technical training centre.
The next major operational milestone is Salitre 2026, the multinational exercise hosted in Chile in October, where the F-39 will fly alongside the Chilean F-16 and the United States F-35. The exercise will be the first head-to-head international comparison of the Saab platform against US fifth-generation aircraft in the region.
Brazilian air-force commanders have publicly described the Anápolis cycle as a doctrinal step rather than just a hardware upgrade. The integration of the Gripen, KC-390, and ground-based air-defence systems is expected to define the Brazilian air-power model for the next decade.
What the Gripen Anápolis cycle means for the region
For the wider South American defence market, the Brazil-Colombia Gripen footprint creates the largest interoperable fighter fleet in the region. The two air forces will operate identical platforms with shared training pipelines, joint logistics, and a common weapons inventory.
Argentina, Chile, and Peru operate older or smaller fighter fleets, and none has begun a Gripen-scale modernisation. Saab has signalled interest in the Peruvian replacement of its Mirage 2000 and Argentine modernisation discussions, with both governments still considering procurement options.
The strategic logic is straightforward. Two regional air forces flying the same platform create economies of scale in maintenance, training, and component supply, and they make the case for a third or fourth Latin American customer easier for Saab and Embraer to put forward.
What is the F-39 Gripen?
The Brazilian designation of the Saab JAS 39 Gripen E/F, a Swedish generation 4.5 fighter with Brazilian-assembled units produced at Embraer’s Gavião Peixoto facility. Brazil ordered 36 in 2014 for around $5.4bn.
What did Colombia order from Saab?
Seventeen Gripen E/F aircraft signed in Cali in November 2025, with deliveries between 2027 and 2032. The Saab contract value is around €3.1bn ($3.6bn) and the all-in Colombian package reaches $4.3bn.
Will Embraer build the Colombian aircraft?
No final allocation has been disclosed. Saab and Embraer have discussed component work and partial assembly of the Colombian order through Gavião Peixoto, but the firm production map has not been published.
For more on Brazilian state-aligned industrial policy, see our coverage of the Saudi royal investment in Inter de Limeira. For wider regional industrial commitments, read our piece on CAEME’s $8bn Argentine pharma pledge.
The Rio Times — Saturday, May 30, 2026 — 03:00 BRT — By Lachlan Williams
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