, On 14 December 2006, Gripen fighter (Tail No. 39210) became the first of the new Gripen C/D standard of the aircraft to pass the 500 operational flight hour mark.
The aircraft has been stationed at the Swedish Air Force F17 Ronneby Wing since it was handed over by the Swedish Defence Material Administration in May 2005.
Since its delivery to Ronneby, the aircraft has performed faultlessly in all conditions and has met or exceeded all of its operational objectives. It will soon stay on the ground for a few weeks to get the latest 18:9 standard upgrade.
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Less than a month after its delivery, Gripen 39210 was involved in a bird strike incident over the Baltic sea and had to divert to a commercial airfield with a damaged radome and in low visibility. After cleaning the canopy, changing the radome and a general inspection the aircraft was back in operational readiness within a few hours.
In total the Swedish Air Force has now flown more than 85,000 hours with Gripen since the first Gripen 39A version entered service.
