The cost of developing a state-of-the-art fighter seems to have grown to the point, where only economic superpowers like the US and China have pockets deep enough to be able to afford it. Joking aside, I'm not sure that a country the size of Sweden has any chance of remaining competitive in the current age. SAAB offered the option of leasing aircraft and providing a certain number of flight hours per year which arguably made sense in that context.įind somebody willing to bet a few hundred billion dollars on developing another fifth-generation aircraft and hoping to recoup the money buy serving the global market of countries for whom buying American just isn't an option for some reason or another? /s What success the Gripen C/D had in Europe seems to have largely been with ex Warsaw pact countries that were moving away from legacy Soviet aircraft. Note that the Gripen does have some American made components so unlike the Rafale it is subject to ITAR restrictions which can be a royal pain to deal with even for countries friendly to the US. Or F-35s in cases where existing customers are considering a major upgrade. The older, less expensive Gripen-C/D's competitors include used fighters such as older model F-16s and and the Korean F/A-50 which is a true low cost fighter. The new Gripen-E is a relative newcomer facing stiff competition from the F-35, the Eurofighter, the Rafale, the F-16V, and the Super Hornet. Given that the Gripen's largest export customers are Brazil and South Africa I think the range issue is overblown, especially for the newer E model.
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