Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb and state officials joined representatives from Purdue University on Oct. 13 to celebrate the grand opening of Saab Inc.’s West Lafayette facility.
The multimillion-dollar facility, located in the Discovery Park District adjacent to the Purdue campus, supports production of the U.S. Air Force's next-generation T-7A jet trainer. When at full capacity by 2027, Saab Inc. expects to employ up to 300 people in the West Lafayette facility.
The facility, announced in May 2018, opened early this year on the West Lafayette site. However, the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the grand opening.
Construction of the facility began in 2020., and was completed on-time and on-budget. The facility will initially be the site "for domestic production of Saab’s aft airframe section for the T-7A Red Hawk trainer program," according to a Saab Inc. press release. "It will also support research and development in autonomy, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing.”
The new facility is Saab Inc.’s seventh U.S. location. Saab Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of the Sweden-based global aerospace and defense company Saab.
The T-7A Red Hawk is an advanced pilot training system designed and manufactured through a Saab-Boeing partnership for the U.S. Air Force, to train fighter and bomber pilots. The West Lafayette team, which will include engineers, designers and assemblers, will build and supply to Boeing’s final assembly in St. Louis a section that extends from behind the cockpit all the way to the end of the aircraft.
Saab is part of Purdue’s growing defense research and technology ecosystem, which includes plans for the only Mach 8 HYPULSE wind tunnel in the world and an expanding Rolls-Royce presence. Within the last couple of years, Schweitzer Engineering Labs (SEL at Purdue) also has built and located within the Discovery Park District.
