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Sweden, along with Scandinavian brother nation Finland, has made the momentous decision to
join NATO.
This, in turn, has unsurprisingly generated a new round interest in Swedish weapons systems
and military capabilities The JAS 39 Gripen.
Let’s take a further look at Sweden’s current entry into the air superiority race.
We start from Gripen VS Russian Jets.
If, in a worst-case scenario, NATO does end up in a shooting war with Russia, that naturally
begs the question as to how the Gripen would fare against Russian jet fighters.
In a strictly theoretical exercise, we can at least venture somewhat of an educated guess.
Against a 5th-Generation stealth fighter like the Sukhoi Su-57, the JAS 39 would likely
face an uphill battle, but what about 4th-Generation counterparts like the MiG-29 “Fulcrum”
and the Su-35 “Flanker-E”?
The MilitaryFactory.Com website provides a side-by-side comparison of the Gripen and
the Fulcrum.
The MiG-29 has the advantages of greater speed and higher ceiling.
The SAAB warbird has the edge in range 3,200 vs 1,430 km smaller radar cross-section, and
airframes that are 13 years younger.
As far as the Gripen’s head-to-head against the Flanker-E, the Aviatia provides grants
the Saab a “very good” Overall Rating vs an “excellent” for the Sukhoi; breaking
that down further, the website grades the Swedish fighter’s Dogfight Rating at 74
percent vs. the Russian warbird’s 95 percent; armament has a smaller differential, at 8.0/10
for the Swede and 8.4/10 for the Russkie.
Is it better than the F35?
The most notable strength of US fighters is their stealth radar avoidance profile and
produced on a larger scale.
On the other hand, Cost of 1 unit The F35A’s is $ 98 million, while the JAS 39 Gripen’s
is between 30 and 60 million.
About speed The F35A is equipped with Mach 1.6 and boasts a cruising range of 1,930 km/h.
Shorter than the reach of Swedish planes with the speed Mach 2 and 2,204 km/h.
The more modern E-series Gripen is based on a fully tested aircraft and is considered
fully combat ready.
In contrast, the F-35 has over 800 performance issues, and the progress in resolving them
is very slow.
In conclusion, the JAS 39 Gripen has many advantages over the F-35, but cannot compete
with the F-35 due to differences in program size, low cost for the weight of the F-35,
and drawbacks.
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