Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is visiting Sweden and has requested that Sweden provide Ukraine with some of it’s Gripen fighter jets. And Ukrainian pilots are already starting preliminary training for that platform.
The Gripen jet has certain advantages over the F-16 that Ukrainian pilots are training on now. For example, the Gripen can land...well, not everywhere, but it can handle landing on a paved road, whereas the F-16 requires a fairly pristine airstrip for takeoff and landing, which may put limits on where it can be operated from in Ukraine.
The Gripen can also use much shorter airstrips than the F-16, needing only about 2,600 feet of runway to take off, compared to 6,000 feet for the F-16. The Gripen was literally designed to be able to land and take off from highways in wooded areas (while about the same length as an F-16, the Gripen’s wingspan is also five feet narrower).
So the Gripen will have a lot more options of where it can operate from than the F-16. Which fits the current Swedish doctrine of dispersal, meaning being able to spread out its military assets to different locations so that they are a more difficult target in large numbers.
The Gripen is also easy to maintain, and part of it’s design was to be such. Sweden’s doctrine has Gripens maintained by an crew of just 5 conscripts and one senior experience mechanic. It can be re-armed and refueled in less than 10 minutes for air-to-air operations and in less than 20 minutes for air-to-ground operations, according to Saab, the manufacturer of the Gripen.
The Gripen is also NATO compliant, and two NATO members have Gripens in their air forces — Czechia and Hungary. This means it can use a wide variety of NATO-standard munitions for its payloads without needing modification, as the Ukrainians have been having to do with their old MiG’s.
The downside is that if Sweden does provide the Gripen platform to Ukraine, it will be a small number. There are not that many Gripen fighters in existence, and likely what Ukraine would get from Sweden are Sweden’s current C-series of the plane. Sweden is transitioning it’s air force to the new E-series of fighter, and as it does so it will phase out the C’s — which would free them up to go to Ukraine. Sweden has a TOTAL of 94 Gripen C- and D- models in it’s air force, and plans are that the transition to the E-series won’t be complete until the 2030’s. This means that if Ukraine does get the Gripen, it will probably be a relative handful. But I reckon a handful is more than Ukraine has now, so… Anyway, if Ukraine is already going to be getting some F-16’s, adding in a few Gripens will just boost Ukraine’s air capabilities by just that much more.
Will the Swedes give Ukraine a few Gripens? Time will tell. A few months ago Sweden said no to a similar request, but in such a way that left the door open that it might be possible in the future. Maybe now is the time.
Edit: Also just a quick addition regarding another weapon platform: Ukraine and Sweden have signed a production agreement for jointly producing CV-90’s for the Ukrainian military. CV-90’s (which stands for the original name of “Combat Vehicle 90”) are a tracked Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) used by the Swedish military and are designed for use in tough environments like snow and wetlands. Sweden committed in January to sending 50 of their own stock to Ukraine, but this agreement makes it possible for Ukraine and Sweden to produce more.