The government of Sweden approved and ratified a ten-year extension of Hungary’s lease of Gripen fighter aircraft last week, daily Nepszabadsag said on Tuesday.
Sofia Karlberg, an official of the Swedish Defence and Security Export Agency (FXM), declined to reveal any further details of the modified contract other than the ten-year extension when asked by the paper.
Hungarian Defence Minister Csaba Hende said earlier that extending the lease until 2026 would save the state HUF 63bn.
The lease was originally set to expire in 2015.
Government data show the Gripen lease costs the budget an annual HUF 30bn. Training programmes for the aircraft cost an additional HUF 2bn a year.