So in one of our recent videos where we talked specifically about the Saab Gripen in the thumbnail
We used a little tag saying better than the f-35
But is it really it's a common thing to think of when it comes to aircraft to compare and many military governments around the world
Actually feel that the Saab Gripen is a better fighter simply because of its cost in purchase and in operations
But let's find out the difference between the two. How's it going everybody? What's going on? How you doing?
Dave Walpole here and welcome to FTD facts a channel where I look at people cultures places and militaries and
military hardware from all around the world now today excited to talk about this video because man
I a lot of people in our last video who were really butthurt over the thumbnail
So with that today
I
figured I'd put my money where my mouth is and I am going to take it to a test and we're gonna look at the
Differences between these two fighters and find out which one is better
Now a bit of a backstory before we get into both of these planes, which perform very well for what they do
both of these fighters are very much a
Vehicle of interest by many different countries from around the world through the Saab Gripen. It's a Swedish fighter
Sometimes being coined as the smart fighter made by the Saab company
which is famous for making the Viggen and Dragon and many other famous craft from the country so far as of
2019 there have been many countries that have an interest in this fighter and they are the countries of Canada Brazil Bulgaria about SWANA
Colombia Finland Croatia and even India
There's also the Philippines Poland Switzerland and many others like Lithuania Argentina, Austria, Serbia
Slovenia Vietnam, and the list goes on as well in today's world
There have been historically and currently some operators of this fighter
Which have been the UK Thailand South Africa Hungary the Czech Republic and of course Sweden itself
And as a matter of fact, this is a nice little segue into the f-35 the country of Denmark was interested in the Saab Gripen
originally, however by
2016 they withdrew with their plans to have 27
F-35s delivered to the country in the near future and as well the same thing goes with the Netherlands in 2009
They were planning on having 85 of these Griffins
However, they went with the F 35 now the f-35 lightning ii just an awesome name for the fighter itself
This fighter is made by the trustee
old-school Lockhead Martin aeronautics company as a matter of fact
This fighter is so popular that the fighter itself has its own Twitter page
believe it or not the countries that currently use this fighter or at least have used it in a historical setting are as follows you
Have the USA obviously Belgium Austria Israel Italy, Japan, Norway
and of course the Netherlands there's also
Turkey South Korea the UK my country of Canada also had an interest in the
F-35 but because of the costs of the fighter and the runway costs
They unfortunately had to pull out
which brings us to one of the real main differences of whether or not this fighter is better again better is realistically a
Perspective because what is better for one country is sometimes not better for the other and especially when it comes to budget
That's a big thing to consider. But before we get into costs and variants and all that sort of stuff
Let's look at an overview of these fighters as a whole
Basically, the Saab Gripen is classified as a multi-role fighter capable of fighter attack and recon
It is also a single-seat fighter, but does have the option to be a two-seater
It uses fly-by-wire controls and it is a delta wing type aircraft. And for those who don't understand what fly-by-wire means
it's where the movements are converted into an electronic system where the signals are transmitted by wires to the computer systems the f-35
Although might be a multi fighter. It is much different in many different ways
This is because the f-35 is not just a multi-role fighter
But a stealth multi-role fighter similar to these saab Gripen it is a single-seat single-engine fighter
Which of course can have its pros and cons?
One of the main difference is that the f-35 is powered by wire. Of course. This is similar to fly-by-wire
however, instead of hydraulic circuits
it uses electrical power circuits that can be controlled digitally by the flight computer and
Keeps all the good things of fly-by-wire now, let's jump into variants. This is where it gets really cool
So the Saab Gripen does have many different variants
there is the a and the B which were the first two original types the a was a single-seat fighter and
Been used since its introduction in 1996 and for the B, it was the two-seater of this original craft
But however with many upgrades the C is now your basic
Standard single-seat version that has been upgraded to have NATO compatibility the D
Of course is its improved two-seater as well? There is also the ng and the E which have a fuel capacity
Increased and more are Nimmons. And of course there is a final variant which is known as the F
This is a specialized version for Brazil
Now the f-35 this is where it gets a little interesting because contrary to many people's beliefs the f-35
Yes is capable of having three different types of takeoffs. You can do either they carry or catapult
It can do VTOL going straight up or it can do you're just your regular?
Takeoff of a runway sort of take off the thing though is most people believe that one single version can do this
That's not the case
It's actually three different versions that can do these each
individually
And this was because the f-35 was made to do many different things depending on the version
Such as the a version which is your standard takeoff the B ving your VTOL and C has not only foldable wings for aircraft carriers
And storage, but can take off with the assistance of the catapult on the carrier also the C because it has larger wings
It's capable of going at much slower speeds, which is, you know, very helpful for attacking ground targets
But let's get into the numbers
Let's look at some major differences and size our Nimmons and all that sort of stuff
So firstly in terms of size the SAB Gripen is a much smaller fighter and therefore harder to hit
Depending on the conditions, of course
The f-35 is a stealth fighter and I'm going to get into the stealth aspects in a little bit
But let's just keep on the size of these fighters first
So you have the f-35 that has a length of fifty point four three feet with a width of thirty nine
point nine four feet and a height of 17.3 for the SAB Gripen
However is a little bit smaller with a length of forty six point two
Six feet and a width of twenty seven point five six feet and a height of fourteen point seven six feet as well
Getting into some of the nitty-gritty
Aspects of these fighters for the maximum takeoff weight the f-35 absolutely destroys the SAB Gripen as the f-35
smt o w can take up to
seventy thousand one hundred and seven pounds where the SAB can only take thirty thousand eight hundred and
Sixty-five pounds this of course makes the f-35 capable of taking off with much more
armaments and heavier equipment and also including fuel
Containers if they want to extend their range on the flip side, though
The sad grip in thirty-nine is a lot faster for the f-35. It can go approximately
1,100 99 miles per hour which comes in at Mach
1.6
Plus the sab Gripen however was made for speed coming in at one thousand three hundred and seventy miles per hour being
Approximately Mach 2 plus basically you're sab Gripen is capable of going
171 miles per hour faster than the f-35 and speaking of speed when it comes to engines the Saab Gripen
uses the Volvo RM 12, which is a engine that's been around since
1978 it's a very reliable engine the f-35 uses a rather new one. This is the pratt whitney
f-15 which has been around since
2009 and a previous model of this engine was used in the f-22 raptor and one thing that the Saab Gripen
Also has over the f-35 is its range for the f-35 you're basically looking at the range being around?
1379 miles or
2220 kilometers, whereas the range as the Saab Gripen is approximately
1988 or approximately 320 thousand kilometers ceiling
however
It's been rumored that the f-35 can go much higher than the Saab Gripen
As the f-35 has been said to go above fifty thousand feet where the SAB sits at fifty thousand itself
So, of course the big thing that we got to give the f-35 credit for is the stealth aspect to this fighter
However, though there is a bit of a drawback when it comes to its stealth abilities
and while we're on the topic of stealth considering I'm relating this to the country of Israel who purchased many of these fighters this
The first country to use the f-35 in combat
but when it comes to their stealth technology
Israel who've had a lot of experience with this fighter has unfortunately said that the technology might be
countered in about five to ten years which is a little bit unfortunate because the
F-35 was really pushed out to have a life up of at least thirty to forty years. So without it's stealth technology
There's at least a couple of years in there that its stealth technology might not be very useful
however
Of course over time stealth technology can be adapted to this fighter
Most like how different types of armor can be applied to different versions of tanks and all that sort of stuff
And while we're on the topic of stealth a lot of people think well if it's stealth, it's completely invisible to radar well
kind of but there's other things that go into play besides just that aspect the truth of how the stealth
realistically kind of works
It basically makes a fighter able to elude or make it harder for the fighter to be targeted and destroyed for
F-35s, its overall airframe and designs helps within this stealth ability
Which yes does make it able to hide within radar to some degree and it's not just radar
There's also infrared and emissions detection systems
It is capable of hiding within as a matter of fact
it makes it the first stealth VTOL fighter to ever exist in the world and one other big aspect that really
helps this fighter is the fiber mat and radar absorbent materials that it uses as well when it comes to the
F-35 it has some really interesting
Interfaces that these Saab Gripen does not have such as speak recognition
but basically one of the big factors like I said is
Price when it comes to using these fighters and what they would be used for
So with that, let's take a look at some of the prices on different versions of these fighters now
I'm just gonna let you guys know this is a rough estimate some of these numbers
I've kind of gotten the information from many different places, so they're kind of all over the place
So I've kind of averaged in the middle for your individual f-35 a variant it comes in at eighty nine point two
Million dollars. However, keep that in mind by the year 2020 with the advancement of the production facilities
They say they're gonna get that down to 80 million
You also have the B variant which is one hundred and fifteen point five million and this C variant
Which is 107 point seven million, that's for the Saab Gripen way cheaper
Not as expensive as the f-35 and to look at your basic C variant
It comes in at approximately thirty to sixty million US dollars
also when it comes to the sab Gripen, it's been around since June ninth of
1996 whereas the f-35 came out on July 31st
2015 so that is a much newer fighter which to me
I'm like man the subgroup and whether or not you think it's not as good as they have 35 for a fighter that's been around
for that long
you gotta give it some credit and probably one major difference between these two is the
program costs for both of the fighters
basically the Saab Gripen comes in at approximately thirteen point five four billion dollars as of
2006 the program cost for the f-35 however came in at approximately
One point five zero eight trillion dollars. Keep in mind that is all spent until approximately the Year
2070 so
Hard to tell anyway guys, that is a look at the differences between these two great fighters
Which one do you think is the best please let me know down there in the comment section below again
I really did this as a sequel kind of video to our previous video because I know a lot of you guys were saying oh
No, what are you talking about?
The f-35 is way better and some people like now the sub Gripen is what it's all about
But anyways guys, my name is Dave Walpole
And if you guys liked this video be sure to give it a big thumbs up if you like military
Stuff you want to hit that subscribe button if it your first time here, and yes
You want to hit that like button because then I know to keep doing more of this type of content
And before you guys get out of here for all you people from the US I have created a military us playlist and a
Sweden military playlist. I've talked about many different departments within these two great countries. So feel free to check them out
I'm gonna put it in the description box put at the end of this video and
Probably up in the cards that are above my head right now or sometime throughout this video, but thanks for watching
I'll see you guys later. Okay. Bye