Gripen is Ideal Choice for Ukraine

[Vivendi]

I think that people have forgotten what are the Ukrainian AF CONOPS and where woud the Gripen / F-16 / F-18 et al., fit into those. The Ukrainians will have a very good idea of what meets their criteria and if they've asked for F-16s then that is what they think best suits their needs. It is in the end what they decide what's best for them and they definitely would've taken rough field operational capabilities into account.

Actually they have asked for F-16, Typhoon, Rafale, and also Gripen (formal request sent to Sweden). Beggars can't be choosers and they will be happy to receive any Western multirole jet. Sweden is considering Ukraine's request to transfer Gripen fighter aircraft - Militarnyi

One thing with the second-hand F-16 -- if we look at Europe only the numbers are actually not that great. Turkey and Greece have some but I strongly doubt either of them will give up any. Poland got some quite new F-16s -- so new that I doubt they will ship them to Ukraine. None of the "big" countries in Europe operate F-16. Furthermore most European countries operating old F-16 are already transitioning to F-35 and have sold at least some of their F-16s already. So unless the US is providing a significant number of F-16 to Ukraine, the number of available F-16 is may be lower than some people think...

Norway had around 50-55 operational F-16, but has as already sold 32 to Romania, and up to 12 to Draken International Norge har inngått kontrakt om salg av F-16 jagerfly til Romania - regjeringen.no Norge selger et mindre antall F-16 til Draken International (fma.no)

Edit: the Netherlands was a big operator of F-16, but has lost some over the years and have also sold several: What is going to happen to the F-16s? | Joint Strike Fighter | Netherlands Court of Audit (rekenkamer.nl)

 

[swerve]

Ah yes, the Gripen. The problem to EVERY solution... Just ask your local SAAB salesman...
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EW, radar? Hmmm. Not so sure Gripen would be the "best" aircraft from those POV's. Certainly they were not Gripen's strong-points when Switzerland assessed the aircraft. In fact they found it inferior to their existing Classic Hornet aircraft in both of these categories and certainly inferior to both Rafale and Eurofighter in these roles.
....

Those were the 2008 trials, IIRC, of a Gripen C. New Gripen Es are very different indeed - but Ukraine couldn't get new Gripens in a hurry. The best it could get quickly is secondhand Gripen C.

 

[koxinga]

but Ukraine couldn't get new Gripens in a hurry. The best it could get quickly is secondhand Gripen C.

Depends on what you mean to be "in a hurry".

Saab has been flogging new Gripen Cs (14, to be exact) to the Philippines Airforce's Multirole Fighter program. The main value proposition (other than lower cost, compared with the F-16 BLK72), is the abilty to start delivery within a year or so.

The short delivery time is because they have 14 (10 x 'C' single seaters and 4 x 'D' two seaters) that were built and paid for by the Swedish government as a stop gap to prevent the loss of technical knowledge and skilled personnel before the production line of the Gripen 'E's got started.

The last I've heard, the Filippinos are still keen but money has been short.

Swedish taxpayers paid for 14 JAS-39C/D unused airframes in order to keep Gripen’s production line open - The Aviation Geek Club

The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) explained that the 14 JAS-39C/Ds were included in the Gripen E contract.

theaviationgeekclub.com

Small quantities of literally new old stock.