SAAB JAS 39A/B/C/D Gripen

FighterJock said:
Will that be the Gripen C? What happened to the Gripen As that were retired years ago?
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It will certainly be C/D models. Some A/B were converted to the C/D standard in the 2000s. IIRC 31 airframes were affected, maybe more. It allowed the SwAF to achieve a strength of 100 JAS 39C/D. It must be remembered that 28 C/D out of 84 ordered were leased to Chechia and Hungary, albeit I'm not entirely sure whether both export customers received new build C/D or whether one in fact received convertes A/B models.
 
Hungary probably have the older airframe. One of the video depicting maintenance of the leased airframe, there is some recursive occurrence of comments from the ground crew that this or that was phased out and newer design added welcomed slight improvements.
 
That is interesting Scorpion82, I am surprised that they converted some Gripen As to the C model but they must have been the last As delivered to the Swedish Air Force so they would have had the lowest number of flight hours on the airframe to allow for that.
 
FighterJock said:
That is interesting Scorpion82, I am surprised that they converted some Gripen As to the C model but they must have been the last As delivered to the Swedish Air Force so they would have had the lowest number of flight hours on the airframe to allow for that.
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120 JAS 39A/B were delivered to the SwAF between 1993 and 2001 or so and many were retired therafter. The last 20 (of 110) Batch 2 Gripens were already build as C/D, all Batch 3 (64) were build as C/D. I don't know exactly when the SwAF eventually retired the A/B models, but it must have been until around 2005. The original A/B didn't comply with civil international regulations and NATO standards. While Sweden was no NATO member, it became a Partnership for Peace member. The A/Bs were certainly quite low on FH at the time of their retirement, question is what happened to the airframes that were not converted to the C/D standard, as these are out of service for around two decades already. It's subsequently questionable whether these airframes can be returned to service at all.
 
So what will eventually happen to the Grapen As that cannot return to service? Scrapped or put into museums? Let's wait and see if it is going to be the later.
 
Here's what happened to the 204 Gripen jets originally ordered by Sweden. Graphic is from 2000.

gripenkarta-2000.jpg

Text via the Swedish wiki page:
  • 98 (88 light blue +10 green) operational C/D aircraft of the Swedish Air Force.
  • 32 aircraft dismantled or destroyed.
  • 28 aircraft leased to the Czech Republic and Hungary.
  • 24 aircraft stored and to be sold.
  • 12 aircraft sold to Thailand.
  • 4 aircraft have been used as test aircraft.
  • 4 crashes.
  • 2 aircraft have been donated to the Air Force Museum in Sweden, and the Royal Thai Air Force Museum in Thailand.
The 32 broken up aircraft have most likely been used in the conversion to C/D models or used for spare parts. It appears they used 2 As to make one D while scrapping the B models.

Hungary lost one aircraft and is in the process of leasing 4 more so that's probably 5 aircraft taken from the 24 to be sold.

If I'm not mistaken, Czech, Hungarian and Thai Gripens are all upgraded A/B models.

Allegedly, there are also 14 C/D hulls i.e. empty airframes ordered by Sweden to keep Saab's assembly line busy while they were waiting for the E production to start. These would be in addition to the 204 aircraft originally ordered by Sweden.
 

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So all export sales of Gripen C/D to export customers, except for South Africa, are seemingly converted A/B models or taken aways from the Swedish C/D?
 
eagle said:
Allegedly, there are also 14 C/D hulls i.e. empty airframes ordered by Sweden to keep Saab's assembly line busy while they were waiting for the E production to start. These would be in addition to the 204 aircraft originally ordered by Sweden.
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Yeah, those were built during the 2010s and were recently offered to Philippines for their Horizon 3 MRF acquisition programme. Saab was very close to winning the deal, offering those 14 aircraft for the price of 12, but somehow the deal hasn't realized, probably becauae the Filipinos are very adamant on the fact that they want a F-16.

It also probably wouldn't help that Thailand regularly trains with the Chinese.
 
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timmymagic said:
Looks like Gripen will finally get Taurus...
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I’m confused. So all those pictures of Taurus displayed next to Gripen, hanging off the wings etc were just for show? All those sales campaigns where we were told about Gripen’s amazing multirole capabilities, and in reality it didn’t even have a stand-off weapon? They never completed integration after the initial captive flight tests 25+ years ago??

No wonder the Swedes were told not to bother giving Gripens to Ukraine.
 
H_K said:
I’m confused. So all those pictures of Taurus displayed next to Gripen, hanging off the wings etc were just for show? All those sales campaigns where we were told about Gripen’s amazing multirole capabilities, and in reality it didn’t even have a stand-off weapon? They never completed integration after the initial captive flight tests 25+ years ago??
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Yes, yes (well unless you count the Maverick and the RBS-15?) and yes (weapons integration is expensive and no MOD contracted the Taurus integration with Gripen).
 
Well, the RBS15 mk3 has a ground attack mode, so that was a capability that has been there for quite a few years now. It's nothing fancy, just a GPS guided missile equivalent, but it's still technically a stand off weapon.
 
H_K said:
I’m confused. So all those pictures of Taurus displayed next to Gripen, hanging off the wings etc were just for show? All those sales campaigns where we were told about Gripen’s amazing multirole capabilities, and in reality it didn’t even have a stand-off weapon? They never completed integration after the initial captive flight tests 25+ years ago??

No wonder the Swedes were told not to bother giving Gripens to Ukraine.
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Yep. They even retired the BK90, the gliding cluster munition, that Taurus was descended from (due to the Cluster Munitions Ban). Taurus has been flight tested on Typhoon but I don't believe it ever completed full integration either...
 
First strike mission:

According to news outlet The National Thailand, the aircraft executed at least two strike missions on July 26—targeting artillery positions in Phu Ma Kua and a second site near the contested Ta Muen Thom temple, where ground skirmishes between Thai and Cambodian forces have intensified.
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Thai Gripen Joins F-16 In Combat Debut | Aviation Week Network

The Royal Thai Air Force has deployed two Saab JAS 39C/D Gripens alongside a pair of Lockheed Martin F-16A/Bs to conduct precision air strikes against Cambodian military targets, as armed clashes along the border enter a third day.
aviationweek.com aviationweek.com

Same in local news:

www.expressen.se

Gripen i thailändsk attack i Kambodja

Thailand har nu använt svenska Gripen-flygplan i en attack mot Kambodja, uppger thailändska The Nation med hänvisning till flygvapnet. Två Gripenplan ska ha varit med i anfallet – vilket kan vara första gången någonsin.
www.expressen.se www.expressen.se

Also, on the 29th, a scramble mission for a possible Russian drone intercept by Swedish Gripen as their first NATO active mission during their deployment in Poland (soon to be replaced by Hungarian Gripen):

"Polish and allied duty aircraft have been scrambled and ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems have reached the highest state of readiness," the command said in a statement posted to X in the early hours of Monday morning, as hundreds of drones and missiles targeted sites across Ukraine.

The alert lasted for around three hours, after which the command posted another statement saying that "deployed forces and resources have returned to standard operational activities."

NATO's Air Command and Swedish JAS 39 Gripen fighters stationed in Poland took part in the response, the Polish Operational Command said.

An official at Lithuania's Defense Ministry confirmed to ABC News that a drone also crossed into Lithuania from Belarusian airspace.
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abc7news.com

NATO aircraft scrambled during major Russian drone, missile strike on Ukraine

Polish and Swedish military aircraft were scrambled in response to a large Russian drone and missile attack launched across Ukraine on Sunday night.
abc7news.com abc7news.com
 
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Here's an old video that highlights some of the features and organization that are supposed to make the Gripen well suited to dispersed operations. One of the ways you can tell its an older video is the black and green multi function displays which suggest the aircraft is a Gripen A. I suspect the video is from back when SAAB had a partnership with BAE for building and selling export Gripens.

View: https://youtu.be/49L9BlYQSjw
 
Gripen Hungary.jpg
Interestingly, new Hungarian C/Ds are in fact new, rather than refurbished swedish one. Yes, well after JAS-39E/F deliveries (and apparently after most of E/F actual airframes went into production).
 
Ainen said:
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Interestingly, new Hungarian C/Ds are in fact new, rather than refurbished swedish one. Yes, well after JAS-39E/F deliveries (and apparently after most of E/F actual airframes went into production).
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Weren't there a set of whitetails manufactured to keep the line running until E production started? Assuming these new C/Ds are those jets and not being manufactured now today alongside the E.
 
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Ozair said:
Weren't there a set of whitetails manufactured to keep the line running until E production started? Assuming theae new C/Ds are those jets and not being manufactured now today alongside the E.
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Yes, it's one of those. Still it stands - new C/D deliveries well after E/F ones.
(tbh Hungarians should've waited out this year or two till new radar and maybe EW at this point).
 
Darthtabby said:
One of the ways you can tell its an older video is the black and green multi function displays which suggest the aircraft is a Gripen A. I suspect the video is from back when SAAB had a partnership with BAE for building and selling export Gripens.
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Doesn't mean much, but isn't that Senna in a McLaren from 1990, or possibly 1989?
 
Gripen first bite scored... a flight attendant foot.

It was on June 18, 2025, that the passenger plane's so-called TCAS system was activated as the planes approached each other in the airspace over Östergötland. There were two JAS 39 Gripen from the Swedish Armed Forces and a Boeing 737-800 from the company Norwegian, with a total of 125 people on board.

The passenger plane made an evasive maneuver, which led to one of the plane's flight attendants falling so badly that she broke her foot.
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www.svt.se

Gripenplan och passagerarflyg riskerade kollision vid inflygning till Skavsta

Boeing-planets system för kollisionsvarning gick igång under en inflygning till Skavsta i somras. Nödmanövern som följde gjorde att en flygvärdinna bröt foten.
www.svt.se www.svt.se

Everyone would have understood if it was a Norwegian Lockheed Martin aircraft... But a Boeing, with who Saab is in partnership for a juicy US contract?! ;)
 

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