Swedish arms manufacturer Saab is said to be close to a cooperation with American airplane maker Boeing to offer JAS 39 Gripen fighter jets to the U.S. Air Force’s educational TX.

The collaboration is expected to be announced within “weeks rather than months“, according to US air industry magazine Aviation Week, citing informed sources.

Saab is apparently confident that the two companies will be able to undercut the cost of the closest rival contender, the Lockheed Martin/Korea Aerospace Industries T-50, it said.

The news came the same day as Saab’s proposed sale of 22 Gripen fighter jets to Switzerland won approval from the lower house of parliament with the Swedish defence firm confident the $3.4 billion deal would go through next year.

“We are very pleased with it but it is still a continuing political process that is going on in Switzerland,” Tomas Samuelsson, head of Saab’s Europe and Greater Middle East region, told Reuters at a defence exhibition in London.