Saab Defense And Security USA LLC is the new company replacing Saab North America as part of a corporate effort to gain more synergies and leverage among its business units and to be more effective for its customers.
“It’s a more coherent U.S. base,” with the purpose of using the abilities of its companies to provide better solutions for customers, said Lars Borgwing, president of the new company. “No one is being laid off, nothing is closing. It’s just more efficient. Saab is maturing in its international outlook and will continue to do that.”
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Unveiled Oct. 22 at the Association of the United States Army annual conference, Saab Defense and Security is a U.S. defense company, focused only on the U.S. market only and has a different way of doing business, Borgwing said. Saab North America was more a marketing entity for Saab and Swedish products.
Saab operates four business units in the United States–support, and services, based in Sterling Va., the Orlando, Fla.-based training and simulation business, which is near the Army’s Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Command (STRICOM), Barracuda, a multispectral camouflage and signature management unit based in North Carolina, and the New York-based Sensis, which encompasses air defense, air traffic control, airline and airport operations management and data integration and distribution. Radars for the Air Force, Navy and Marines are part of this work.
Borgwing said Swedish corporate parent Saab Group took a look at the four companies, and didn’t see much duplication but many things in common and decided to put them in one company that would have a larger footprint. “They started looking at it about a year ago and started planning for it,” he said.
The four units each have specific missions with no overlap, and together can form better solutions and with access to different customers open new areas.
“Previously, the companies were somewhat isolated, not too much involved with each other, Borgwing said. “Now we’re seeing a lot of synergies.”
As well as being knowledgeable about the capabilities of the four business units, the Washington, D.C. office of Saab Defense and Security are familiar with, and have an insight into all Saab products and how to get them into the U.S. market.
For example, the Army and U.S. Special Operations Command recently awarded an approximately $31 million contract for the Carl Gustaf man-portable weapon system.
Moving into the 2014 fiscal and calendar year, Borgwing said he plans to make sure the new company functions the way it is supposed to.
There is a lot of interest from Saab to grow in the United States, and Borgwing expects a lot of work for the new company going out and competing, looking for the next partners, and seeking opportunities.
Parent company Saab’s ambition is to grow around the world and it has been moving toward this objective in a deliberate fashion, he said. Initially, the company was focused on Sweden, and then moved into Europe, then it reorganized and started establishing marketing offices in different parts of the world, to include the United States, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
A more focused effort is the right move, the company believes, because even with financial constraints the United States is by far the largest defense market in the world.
“There are opportunities,” he said. “Take the right opportunity and Saab can go in and add value, perhaps something that may not exist in the United States and increase the value of its offering.”