Forum: F-35 Lightning II

Ok, let's put a few things straight about the Gripen. It was developed because at the time there was no viable alternative, purchasing an american fighter like the F-16 or the F-20 which were to two alternatives studied afaik was deemed to expensive simply because they would not function in the infrastructure built up over decades in the Swedish air force, choosing. Besides, the F-16 back then was not the multi-role fighter it is today and Sweden needed multi-role.

The orders placed for Gripens was not some type of industrial support buy. At the time the number actually ordered was expected to become substantially more than the 200 or so we ended up with, what happened was the cold war ended and the Gripen was hit by pretty much the same dynamic as the F-22, how many do we really need? The money would be better spent on schools and hospitals, bla bla you all know the drill. The politicians cut spending, discontinued conscription and ended up scrapping all that infrastructure built up over decades at a cost of billions that made the development of the Gripen more or less a necessity some 20 years earlier.

As late as in the mid 90's there where still 8 air force regiments in Sweden, all with at least two squadrons of fighters, down from 10 regiments when the cold war ended back in 1990. That would transform into a need of 400+ fighters ant that is not taking into account that some of those regiments had three squadrons. Today there's TWO regiments left plus one who handles pilot training and airlift.

There's no chance whatsoever of a indigenous fighter to follow the Gripen, if there are no substantial sales to some foreign power I doubt we'll even see the E/F-version flying, much less any G/H. The Swedish aircraft industry is probably destined to become suppliers of parts to Boeing and Airbus, most have have already gone down that road, the military wing of SAAB will probably end up supplying parts to UAV's. The only thing I can think of where they'd have anything to offer EADS, Dassault, LockMart or Boeing would be ease of maintenance. I've never been near a non Swedish fighter but those who had been on international visits/deployments were all horrified at how maintenance-intensive other fighters were compared to their Swedish counterparts.

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Its not so much a 'lost' when they never really got there before. Japan, S. Korea have been customers to US arms sales over the last half of the century, you'd be naive if you think they would suddenly turn to Europeans for fighter jets, tanks, etc.

Looking at countries on the Asian continent India, Pakistan, Oman and Lebanon (Hawker Hunters) have used European fighters in recent times - maybe a few others but feel free to check. There are a lot of mixed fleets - some countries probably dont want to put all their eggs in one basket as to speak for various reasons.

Gripen is not bad for 4th Gen jet and expect it will sell on cost alone - but you only get what you pay for with that bird.......if I had to would prefer the F-16C Block52+....but hey this is an F-16 site wtf did you expect!!

Forum: F-35 Lightning II

Europe loses out in Asian arms market