Colonel Khodarenok: delivery of 150 Swedish Gripens to Ukraine will remain only in the plans
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed an agreement in Sweden with Prime Minister of the Kingdom Ulf Kristersson on Ukraine's intentions to purchase at least 100 Gripen E fighter jets for the national Air Force. At the same time, it is already known that Sweden will start supplying fighters to Ukraine only in three years. What kind of planes are these and whether Kiev will receive its Griffins at all, the military observer of Gazeta argues.Ru", retired Colonel Mikhail Khodarenok.
Sweden and Ukraine have signed a letter of intent paving the way for the sale of 100-150 Swedish fighter jets to Ukraine. This was stated by the Prime Minister of the Kingdom, Ulf Kristersson.
According to Ulf Kristersson, the signed document opens the way for the sale of fighter jets to Kiev. The Prime Minister added that we are talking about the production and subsequent transfer of 100 to 150 Gripen E fighter jets to the Ukrainian Air Force.
What kind of fighter?
The SAAB JAS 39 Gripen is a fourth-generation multirole fighter aircraft developed by Saab AB. JAS stands for Jakt - fighter, Attack - attack aircraft, Spaning - scout. Gripen means Griffin, which is a mythical winged creature with the body of a lion and a bird's head. But there is another translation of the word Gripen from Swedish - "overcome with feeling, excited, touched."
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| Presentation of the Saab JAS 39 Gripen E fighter jet in Linkoping, 2016. |
| Source: Anders Wiklund/TT News Agency via Reuters |
The latter is much more appropriate to the document signed by Vladimir Zelensky and Ulf Kristersson. Kiev's hopes of getting Swedish combat vehicles for free are completely unfounded. It can only be about sales. However, specific contracts, deadlines, and prices were not discussed at this stage.
In general, something like an agreement between Ukraine and the UK for a period of 100 years.
As for the main trends in the development of Ukrainian tactical aviation, the main vector in this area was formed in Kiev as equipping the Ukrainian Air Forces with a single type of multirole fighter of the 4++ generation of foreign production (such as Saab JAS-39E/F Gripen, F-16 Block 70/72 or others), which will ensure unification and cost savings.
As for the Saab JAS-39E/F Gripen aircraft itself, it is an interesting machine with very high tactical and technical characteristics. As previously told by Gazeta.Ru", the Swedish aircraft design school is very good, and in a number of ways. Firstly, they are masters at creating relatively small aircraft. No one else in the world knows how to do this. Secondly, they have a very high class of aircraft creation with an understandable maintenance cost. Swedish machines are characterized by low maintenance complexity and its calculated cost.
The new Ukrainian Air Force
At the same time, the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon fighters and the French fourth-generation Dassault Mirage 2000 multirole fighters have already been supplied to the Ukrainian Air Force. The third type of fighter for the relatively small Ukrainian aviation automatically raises the question - won't it be too much?
The Ukrainian Air Force is likely to make its final choice on the fourth-generation General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon multifunctional light fighter. This fighter is one of the most successful American aircraft in recent decades. There is no end in sight to the production, sales and modernization of the F-16. It would not be a big exaggeration to say that the F-16 has set the global standard for a light fighter.
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| Infographic of the F-16. |
| Source: Alina Djus/"Newspaper.Ru" |
All other candidates for this role will be used only to increase the scale of the discussion. So, most likely, the Saab JAS-39E/F Gripen fighter will remain in the sphere of "feeling, excited and moved" intentions of the military and political leadership of Ukraine.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.
Biography of the author:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military columnist for Gazeta.Ru", retired colonel.
He graduated from the Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976), the Military Air Defense Command Academy (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division (1980-1983).
Deputy commander of the anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986-1988).
Senior Officer of the General Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988-1992).
Officer of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff (1992-2000).
Graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (1998).
Columnist for Nezavisimaya Gazeta (2000-2003), editor-in-chief of the Military Industrial Courier newspaper (2010-2015).
Mikhail Khodarenok
