Swedish-American defense startup Pythom is attempting to disrupt Europe’s stagnant space industry. Saab just gave it a $10 million vote of confidence.
Saab has invested $10 million in Swedish-American aerospace firm Pythom during its latest funding round, and is acting as the lead investor. Pythom is headquartered in California, and is working to develop rockets, landers, and spacecraft systems with a focus on affordability, simplicity, and speed. Saab has made known its intention to streamline the development of Pythom’s development of lightweight and rapidly-deployable rockets that align with Saab’s vision for “dispersed and resilient launch infrastructure.”
In other words, Sweden—via Saab—is getting into the new space race. And that race is heating up. Big time.
Saab’s Big Bet on Space Technology
The investment explicitly links to national defense and space capabilities. Saab frames this move as contributing to Sweden’s overarching space capabilities, especially in the context of defense.
Saab wants the ability to launch from non-traditional sites, rapidly, with flexible systems. This echoes the importance of mobile, dispersed launch platforms which could easily be deployed to remote regions—including the Arctic or high-latitude zones, thereby increasing strategic access to orbit outside traditional equatorial/low-altitude sites.
Sweden is leading the Nordic and European-wide space revolution with this new investment. Its defense sector is recognizing that access to the strategic high ground of space is neither exclusively commercial nor solely scientific in nature. Accordingly, Saab’s strategic phrasing shows that the company sees Pythom as a firm doing innovative work through which Saab—and Sweden and the rest of the European Union—can leverage to better compete with the Russians, Chinese, and even the Americans in space.
Pythom is an interesting startup, especially for one coming out of what many believe to be an over-bureaucratized Europe. Like many American startups, it emphasizes speed, simplicity, and cost-effectiveness. In a broader strategic sense, this undermines some of the old barriers to entry for space/launch access—meaning more actors, more distributed systems, more agility.
Pythom’s Promise: Cheap, Fast, Easily Deployable
By investing in a Swedish-based firm, Saab is boosting the regional industrial base for launch/space capabilities. That aligns with Europe’s overall commitment to rearmament as well as independence. For a Polar strategy, that means the Arctic region might play a significant role not just undersea or early warning, but in launch and space infrastructure.
Pythom appears to be at the pre-orbital flight stage of their corporate development. Yet, the fact that a major firm, like Saab, has opted to invest at such an early stage in the firm indicates that the sky’s the limit for Pythom. Given Saab’s defense orientation, it is likely that Pythom is a backdoor way for Sweden to take the lead in Europe’s militarization of space—at a relatively low cost.
The name of the game in space is small, agile, and rapidly deployable—and, crucially, reusable—rockets. Firms like Pythom are finally taking Europe to where the Americans have been for more than a decade.
The new space race is here, and it is multifaceted. Even a smaller player, such as Sweden, can have outsized impacts.
About the Author: Brandon J. Weichert
Brandon J. Weichert is a senior national security editor at The National Interest. Recently, Weichert became the host of The National Security Hour on America Outloud News and iHeartRadio, where he discusses national security policy every Wednesday at 8pm Eastern. Weichert hosts a companion book talk series on Rumble entitled “National Security Talk.” He is also a contributor at Popular Mechanics and has consulted regularly with various government institutions and private organizations on geopolitical issues. Weichert’s writings have appeared in multiple publications, including The Washington Times, National Review, The American Spectator, MSN, and the Asia Times. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine is available for purchase wherever books are sold. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
Image: Shutterstock / Munzir Rosdi.
