AEL in the Gripen Program: a trajectory of success

The WAD development program began in January 2015 and is closing this year. The new avionics system program for the aircraft was planned to run over five years and includes the development, integration and production work, to be held in Porto Alegre (RS), at AEL’s headquarters.

WAD is an intelligent system with a high-resolution widescreen (19x8 in), which allows displaying a continuous and redundant image in all its extension, and is capable of receiving multifunctional key inputs, touchscreen or external interfaces. It is the main source of all mission and flight information in the cockpit.

And HUD was developed to match the WAD form (narrow neck design) and has a wide field-of-view to provide essential flight and mission information to the pilot when looking ‘heads up’ out of the cockpit.

HMD is the next generation of Targo© family which allows the pilot to view data and images of real and virtual targets, adding features that increase the pilot’s situational awareness and judgment capabilities.

WAD Development

AEL developed and produced in Brazil three prototype models of its WAD units, which were delivered in 2015, 2016 and 2018, respectively. In May 2016 the company announced the delivery of the Human Machine Interface (HMI) application for the WAD, a preliminary software release that demonstrates Saab's HMI concepts for future WADs. Within this period, an intense technology transfer to AEL took place, allowing the company to develop previously non-existent competencies and putting it at the forefront of technology in panoramic displays.

In the end of 2018, the Swedish Air Force accepted Saab’s proposal to include the most modern cockpit displays, developed by AEL Sistemas, on the 60 Gripen E fighters, harmonizing the Swedish and the Brazilian Gripen Programs and turning AEL into one of Saab's main global suppliers. This achievement exceeded the expectations of the Brazilian Air Force in increasing the capacity of the national industry, one of the great objectives of the Brazilian Gripen Program, and is fruit of intense technology transfer and technical collaboration between Saab and AEL.