The Saab 36 Mach 2 ‘Nuclear’ Bomber Has a Message for the US Air Force and Russia

The Saab 36 Mach 2 ‘Nuclear’ Bomber Has a Message for the US Air Force and Russia

Sweden spent the early Cold War building an entire defense industry rather than depend on anyone else's, and the Saab 36 was where that logic reached its limit. It was designed as a twin-engine delta capable of Mach 2, penetrating at high altitude, delivering a Swedish nuclear weapon to a Soviet target — comparable in ambition to the American B-58 Hustler or the Soviet Tu-22, from a country with a fraction of the industrial base of either. It ne…