Saab JAS 39 Gripen - company shifts focus on Smaller orders 30-40 fighters

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

The SAAB company has recently shifted focus on smaller orders

Ref:Saab Targets Smaller Gripen Orders After Losing Bid for India - Bloomberg

Saab AB (SAABB), the Swedish maker of the Gripen jet fighter, is focusing on winning smaller orders from as many as nine countries after being excluded from India’s military program, Chief Executive Officer Hakan Buskhe said.

Saab sees potential for Gripen orders in Brazil, Romania, Croatia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Hungary and the Czech Republic, Buskhe said in an interview today. Hungary and the Czech Republic are existing customers that may expand their orders, he said.

“We feel good about the Gripen program, it has lots of potential,” Buskhe said, adding that it “remains a profitable business.”


This plane could be ideal , to replace some of the older Chinese planes in our inventory


Prime Fighter: J10B/JF17 Thunder
Secondary : F16 C/D and A/B * And Gripen (Airforce/NAVY)

Such a move would diversify our Airforce Asset , and the Gripen would also be nicely compatible with SAAB AWACs?

Not to mention SAAB is open to involve customer in future upgrades releases

I think this will lower our dependency on the F16 Platform 100% if we get SAAB Gripen and ideal plane perhaps for our NAVY as well

IDEAL FOR PAKISTAN NAVY AS WELL


As of 2009 its AESA radar is being developed , and the price & cost is perfect for Pakistan's prespective

I think this plane could fit our NAVY's fighter of choice and we could perhaps retire the Mirages sooner

 

[Pfpilot]

three tier system my man?
We can barely afford one of those fighters, much less 4 different fighters...I see your point, but we are essentially bankrupt and in a few years, we will theoretically have a jf-17 that will match the Gripen in capability, leaving one of the fighters redundant.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

PROS:
A) AESA will be released soon
B) SAAB is open to joint development of the AESA source is open to clients
C) Its ideal plane for our NAVY
D) Cost is in our ball park
E) Closely integrated with SAAB AWACs

40-50 of these planes would easily replace 60 Mirages or older Chinese models

CON:
None that I can think of


If we consolidate our Air-force

J10B as Main strike plane (Ideal for ROSE Mirages replacement)
JF17 Thunder for National De-fence (Ideal for Fa-tan replacement)
Gripen for Navy and Support role (Ideal replacement for NAVY Mirages)

That would be fantastic combination
And F16 C/D and MLU of course could also be used on special operations
Protection of National Air Space etc

Getting Rid of the French crafts should be our first priority

 

[Pfpilot]

Well the problem is the cost right? Because aren't even our jf-17s being financed on generous terms by the ever accommodating Chinese? Great fighter none the less...

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

From a business perspective , I think since the SAAB company would be looking for new orders , they would probably give some good offers for potential clients

It would be an ideal situation for our Air force , instead of putting all apples in one basket i.e F16 C/D and MLU just add a capable dependable fighter like Gripen

I mean we Trust the Chinese J10B , and our own JF17 thunder

I think the GRIPEN would be ideal for our AESA enabled options, and special missions over the sea

a) Single Engine
b) AESA coming soon
c) Superb maneuverability
d) Solid information management system

 

[Luftwaffe]

Although Gripen is miles ahead of J-10B/JFT, but Chinese/Pakistan claims J-10B is going to be super one. So if we place the argument that J-10B could come up close to Gripen then what is the point of getting Gripens.

a) Single Engine
b) AESA coming soon
c) Superb maneuverability
d) Solid information management system

Isn't this what we've been fed all these years regarding J-10B

Are we going to invest in something Similar to F-16s whose future is already uncertain and dieing in PAF due to sanctions prone and all those conspiracy of jamming and source codes.

No need no one is interested in selling PAF anything even the up front cash and buy is not available to PAF anymore after OBL..

Stick with the projects we have and test them hard and day/night that otherwise takes months should take weeks to prove the worth here the word is "INVEST".

 

[Qasibr]

The point isn't to just rid ourselves of the dependency the F-16 fleet causes for us, on hostile states.

The point is to not have our defence being dependent on any hostile state bent on sabotaging or harming us. Going for the gripen would mean that for the 30 or 40 year lifespan of the aircraft, we are dependent on the US for engines and various other things, and dependent on an increasingly anti-Islamic Sweden.

The aircraft certainly is a looker, as well as decent performer. In many ways, it was the inspiration for what the JFT designers wanted the JFT to be, low-cost, high-performance, even the HUD with the three large LCDs seems similar. So while it is unlikely that we'd go for another 4/4.5th gen aircraft(our high-low combination from that generation is JF-17&J-10), perhaps the JF-17 would evolve past the Gripen. It's only been a couple of years since the first JFTs were inducted, but it's been decades since the Gripen's been inducted - it's in it's second iteration and everything. JFT is new and would probably see alot of changes over the years.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

I think the biggest plus is

a) Gripen Program is not finished its still evolving - so if we jump the boat now , we will gain the enhancements that will be done on it
e.g AESA integration , new weapons and easy integration with our AWACs
and the source would be open , meaning we could learn from it

b) JF17 THUNDER is evolving as well so its a major plus

The big clunker for us is , Mirage platform and other older models in NAVY

If we bring in Gripen into the mix we get a platform JF17 which is evolving , and Gripen still maturing (I mean sweeden choose Gripen themselves)

Plus if we play our cards right I hope we can also get the AESA radar , and research and development knowledge share on Gripen

And we could just phase out Mirages/old planes faster.

I mean Gripen is sweedish , and sweedish software is known for its efficiency and design the knowledge we will gain will be tremendous even to our own JF17 thunder project

But I agree J10B is our Main STARLET ...

But Gripen would be ideal platform for NAVAL operations , and also for our Airforce


An Air-force with following make up would be fantastic

300 JF17 Thunder , Main work horse of Pakistan airspace defense
40 J10B , Air Superiority Missions , Interceptions
70 F16 C/D , MLU Interceptions and Special Nuclear Missions
40 Gripen : NAVY/Air-force, Great integration with AWACs, AESA (force multiplier)

This ideal setup would be perfect enabling us to retire the 70's mirages, and other Mig variants


The ANTI ship option of Gripen make this a great item for Pakistan Airforce/Navy

France cannot be trusted upon as a reliable supplier , not sarkozy

 

[Pfpilot]

I disagree on the reliability of the French. They dont have the domestic demand that is nessecary to play political games. For them, money is everything, in order to sustain their aviation industry over the long run. If we had the money, they would sell...we did at one point test out the Rafale, but maybe the money wasnt there or we were wowed by the incredible technological capabilities of used Mirages.
As far as the Navy is considered, they cant even afford to buy the German submarines, which are the most essential need of the navy since we rely on them for all of our offensive naval capability.
The Gripen is great, so is the Rafale, so is the Eurofighter, and so is virtually any other 4.5 generation fighter...we just cannot afford any of them.

 

[farhan_9909]

As we know J-10B
will have more powerfull engine then Gripen(possible Ws-10G with 155Kn and TVC)

As we know that it is recently revealed that J-10B radar T/r modules will be 1200 as compared to Gripen AESA radar in development Vixen 1000 T/r modules are said to be 750.hence J-10B radar more powerfull and more range then Gripen

With powerfull engine(about 55 KN more thrust) without any doubt J-10B will have more payload then Gripen

We can get TOT for J-10B from china very easily even the engine tooi n TOT
bt we cannot get the TOT for engine from USA(Gripen engine)

in capability wise J-10B is far ahead then Gripen.

J-10B better then performance then Gripen and not a sanction prown.from a reliable source

ANd beside this if not JFT II bt JFT-III will be better then Gripen NG

 

[Silk]

Since lot of parts (engine included) are from the USA it was not chosen by Brasil. Only Pakistani forget the reality and jump to Gripen. Well, you got 17 block52 and even without using a kill switch the planes could not do anything against the OBL raid. Humiliation is part of you ideology.

 

[MZUBAIR]

I think they r lost from Indian MMRCA, thats y they r shiffting towards small orders.....
Wise decision in the end, May be not too late.

 

[Manticore]

bhai, this is already posted in mititary affairs subforum-- secondly we already have 2 threads on comparsons with grippen in the jft subforum

 

[Zarvan]

if Pakistan gets money it should also try for JAS 39 Grippen because India has refused so Sweden will also not pay any attention to Indian Pressure if it tries to stop Sweden from selling weapons what do u guys have to say about it

 

[muslim282]

Two many American parts in the fighter for comfort. Unless it comes with good amounts of TOT and some assurances (no 3rd party say) , it won,t be much good for PAF.
The other thing is that the indians after having done some serious homework would have rejected it for a reason(s).
Though in hindsight it would be a good plane to use in conjunction with the AWACS.