SAAB admits “extreme frustration” with regard to no sales of Gripen fighter jets

The Swedish aerospace and defense company SAAB admits ‘extreme frustration’ with regard to no sales of JAS 39 Gripen.

Micael Johansson, SAAB’s President and CEO, shared this with the reporters.

Johansson had informed reporters of his “extreme frustration” at the years-long lack of export successes for the Gripen fighter jet.

According to him, the fighter was not meeting export expectations, blaming political factors and emphasizing that the aircraft’s performance attributes were not to blame.

The Gripen represents a very light fighter jet in a class below standard lightweights such as the American F-16 or French Rafale, and comparable to the Indian Tejas and Sino-Pakistani JF-17.

The JAS 39 Gripen uses the same American F404 engine as the Indian Tejas.

Older modifications of the Gripen were exported to the Czech Republic, South Africa, and Thailand, and leased to Hungary.

However, none of these countries are expected to be clients for the latest Gripen E/F modification, which integrates a much improved F414 engine and belatedly introduces a phased array radar.

The fighter class has seen no sales in close to eight years since a $5.44 billion contract for 36 Gripen fighters was signed in 2014 to equip the Brazilian Air Force.

Notable JAS 39 losses bidding against the F-35 alone were made in Denmark, Canada, Finland, Switzerland, Poland, Norway, and the Netherlands, with the fighter failing to win a single contract when competing against the American aircraft.

As previously reported, the Swedish Gripen E fighter jet had recently conducted the first test firings of the Meteor air-to-air missile.

The missile was launched from a Gripen E fighter at an altitude of approximately 16,500 feet (about 5,000 m) above the Vidsel test range in northern Sweden.