Forum: Modern Military Aircraft

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-3 ... n-jet.html

Since then the Swiss minister for defense has held a press conference confirming the decision. 22 aicraft is the number cited. Remains to be seen if the deal will go through.

F-16.net Sponsor

Sweetness! Here's to hoping it goes through. I can't wait to see the photos of those little Gripens with the Swiss roundel ripping around the Alps! Drool

Props to the Swiss. Gripen is absolutely the best platform for any nation with a defensive military tradition and an eye on expenditures.

Switzerland's defense minister Ueli Maurer has confirmed it

If I remember correctly, these are to replace the F-5s. They have 56 Tigers in total with two squadrons, so either squadron size is being drawn down significantly, or another Gripen order is possible in the future.

The Gripen is a significant improvement over their F-5's. Maybe this is why they figure they can get away with fewer aircraft per squadron.

weez wrote:

The Gripen is a significant improvement over their F-5's. Maybe this is why they figure they can get away with fewer aircraft per squadron.

True, I doubt there's much drop in capability. A Gripen is quite possibly worth nearly 3 Tigers. The Tiger is a 50s-era light fighter with very limited weapons and payload, compared to a 4+-gen fighter with still-limited payload but very good weapons and avionics. The only Tiger that's more than cannon fodder in A2A (IMO) is the F-5T with Python and HMS.

Government decision against the military as Swiss Air Force has chosen the Rafale which won the technical evaluation ..Swiss has a celebrated tradition of going to polls before they ink billion dollars defence project and this is no exeption so nothing is decided yet.

weez wrote:

The Gripen is a significant improvement over their F-5's. Maybe this is why they figure they can get away with fewer aircraft per squadron.

Yes and no.

The above comment assumes that the rest-of-world capabilities are static, hence allowing twice the deterrence for half the numbers.

Maintaining some quantity of force structure however will equate to better sustaining combat readiness and capability. If true, this would seem to be more about reducing the requirements, ie cutting the number of pilots (capability) and saving operational costs accordingly.

Why won't anyone put the F414 in the Gripen Sad

.

EDIT: Oops, forgot about the Gripen NG.

Is Switzerland going for the 450-gallon tanks? It sounds like they are choosing AIM-9X Blk1 and AIM-120C7, because they already bought them for the F/A-18's.

http://www.defense-aerospace.com/articl ... ripen.html

This could cost Dassault lot of credibility in the eyes of future potential customers..

http://www.defense-aerospace.com/articl ... leaks.html

This report might have spoiled Gripen's chances in Switzerland and help boost Rafale sales in other countries.

That report is old and irrelevant. The Gripen NG's estimated effectiveness score at that time(2009) was severly lowered by a "credibility factor".
Note also that Gripen NG Demo was not flight tested(No AESA radar or improved fuel ratio installed yet.)

Link to above report: http://files.newsnetz.ch/upload//1/2/12332.pdf

In 2009 Gripen NG's 98 improvements was inmature and suffered from a low credibility factor, ie the Swiss was unsure if they could be ready in time(Se page 12).
Since then feedback from SAAB has convinced them that they will be ready and therefore raised this factor to get a score above the minimum level. This was in the latest report which was the basis for the Gripen choice. This report was of course not leaked to the media...

http://translate.google.com/translate?u ... p;ie=UTF-8

All in all the leak was just a attemp to throw mud at a winning choice IMHO.

Forum: Modern Military Aircraft

Swiss to buy Gripen