What makes the GRIPEN E so darn good?

With Sweden still inching toward NATO membership, the nation’s small but potent military apparatus represents what could be a significant boost to the alliance’s military capabilities and strategic positioning in Europe. And few platforms better represent Sweden's military efficiency than the SAAB JAS 39 Gripen E.

📱 Follow Sandboxx News on social

📱 Follow Alex Hollings on social

Citations:

[mauriciomdea]

I'm brazilian and I can say our Air Force is very satisfied with it's new Gripen E/Fs. The Erieye AEW + Gripen supercruise and small RCS + Raven AESA + Meteor combination is terrifying. And we can operate this on any of the thousands of small airports all over the country with minimal infrastructure and logistics, which makes it way more complicated for any foe to negate it's use . All without costing us an arm and a leg. We are so pleased with the initial results that we already ordered more planes.

[longshot]

What many people don't know is that when the Grippen first came to Red Flag the Swedes did not fly them here. Instead they packed them up in 10 flat packs, shipped them and mechanics put them back together with the suppied Allen wrench and screwdriver.

[e]

The JAS 39 Gripen flies over my house three times every day and I love it!!

[generalrendar]

It's crazy that it only costs $8k per hour to operate. That is amazing. If it had been widely adopted, it would likely be even cheaper to buy. India needs to sit down with Sweden for these planes.

[SmoochieRoo]

Bang for you buck? My guy I STILL can't afford it.

[geralddutcher]

As a young teenager my family had a second car for a while because both parents worked & different hrs. It was a 3cyl, front wheel drive, three speed on the column, Saab! I thought hey, the Swedes have something here! It was so good in the snow of Maine that Saabs were popular at frozen lake races! I learned how to drive in that little Saab at 13yrs old! You go Saab!

[etherealessence]

The Gripen was the work horse of my Ace Combat 7 play through. I was so happy to see it's inclusion.

[sundownofsweden]

Only six people are needed in refueling and rearming, five of which can be conscripts and one expert.

[richardlewis]

I’m thoroughly impressed but not surprised that Sweden should put out such a fine product. Glad they’re on our side!

[thehoogard]

I think one of the things overlooked in cost analysis is turn-around time. Gripen can do it in minutes, whereas many aircraft requires hours, or even a full day. That might work if you have massive air superiority, but when on equal fotting, or if you're the underdog, you need all your aircraft to maximize the time they can be in the air and run missions.

[talesofcanterbury]

I love a channel that doesn’t even have to explain what Red Flag is. Respect.

[bramcurtis]

I agree 100%. Canada bought the wrong plane. The Gripen is almost purpose built for our air force.

[glacieractivity]

As a Norwegian who originally argued (as an amateur) that we probably should choose Gripen in Norway (knowing realistically that we would pick the F-35 because of NATO and long-standing industrial partnerships with Lockheed Martin, Raytheon etc) I now think we did right to pick the F-35 as I observe it slowly sorts itself out. But here is the twist - my admiration for the Gripen has increased too. It is an insane package designed by a nation with 10 million people (show me another nation with 10 million people who has a tradition of making fighter jets that go toe to toe with the best USA with partners or European consortiums can manage since the beginning of the Cold War.

I also agree with the notion that Gripen is probably the closest machine to the F-35 flying today in terms of fusion and EW (with the caveat that we never truly know what the true capabilities are of any modern weapons until they switch those secret toggles on that reads "this is not an exercise") while being as cheap to fly per hour that it is close to being silly.

As someone who spent a few hours today watching today's seminar at the "Norwegian Committee of the North Atlantic" (NATO is soon 75 years old) that raised some very interesting issues regarding Norway, our sister nations of Sweden and Finland joining and the role of larger Europe and our American partners - well worth a watch. The opening keynote was held by Admiral Rob Bauer ( Chair of the NATO Military Committee) who has proven himself as a clear thinker. (it is all held in English and found on YouTube. Just search for "DAY 2 I Session IV - Leangkollen Security Conference 2024 - NATO 75: Past, Present & Future")

[Oran-]

As an American, it's good to see Sweden joining the club. The Gripen concept is understandable considering their neighbor to the east--I'm not talking about Finland.

[emilth]

Sweden has been at the forefront of weapon manufacturing and improved tactics since the 1600s.
King Gustavus Adolphus is ranked as one of the Great Generals up there with Napoleon and Alexander the Great.
Sweden stronk!

[Halli]

In the 1970's I worked with Swedish desktop personal computers (Luxor DIAB if I remember correctly, well before the advent of the IBM PC). They were based on an 8-bit Z-80 microprocessor with a TINY memory space (64Kb) and yet they far outstripped, performance-wise, the eventual Microsoft-based IBM PC's that were based on 16-bit Intel microprocessors with a vastly superior memory space - but a plodding and incredibly slow operating system.
I am a member of one of the 5 Nordic nations and we proudly consider the Swedes as our "big brother" - a little arrogant at times, but a role model to follow. Whatever the Swedes do they do well, but they will never be boastful about it (Jante's law). Some nations boast about their software skills, others (like the Swedes) do NOT, they just go quietly about their business.
Is the Gripen a good bang-for-the-buck fighter? My bet is that it IS!

[John]

As a high altitude weapon x pilot I can tell you, this fighter is one of a kind.
I did my toughest missions using this fighter jet 😊

[Per]

Another Red Flag lesson was that the Gripen was the only fighter who flew all missions. All others had missed missions due to weather (wtf?) or maintenance problems.

[rokuth]

Speaking of the Gripen proving itself in military exercises, the PRC found out how potent the Gripen C/D were in a couple of military exercises with Thailand. Initially the exercises were given restrictions to both sides, but in final days, the restrictions were removed. Chinese pilots were soundly defeated by the Thai Gripen pilots. This made the Generals in the PLAAF rethink about the training of their combat pilots.

[slabriprock]

Wow! So glad they're on our side!