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Idk, you could go with the gripen, But tbh even Sweden thinks it's a joke. Ask anyone about it and you'll hear a lot of jokes about how they are great at attack
by CorvusCrypto 8y ago
Idk, you could go with the gripen, But tbh even Sweden thinks it's a joke. Ask anyone about it and you'll hear a lot of jokes about how they are great at attacking the ground (crashing). The same types of "why the F35 and not gripen" points came up when Norway got them. The answer is a combination of NATO + the fact that, especially compared to the gripen, the F35 is the better choice. Multipurpose, easily deployed in multiple arms of military, can hold payloads for any mission type, etc. Sure it would be quite poetic to have Denmark pay Sweden for swedish planes but I don't see it happening soon.
- Bartweiss 8y ago> "why the F35 and not gripen" Among other things, this question seems like a simple misunderstanding of prices. The unit cost of the F-35A is $80M, while a top-end Gripen costs a fairly similar $60M. When Denmark did look at buying the Gripen, it requested upgrades to power and payload (already satisfied by the F-35) that could easily have made up the remaining price gap. Maintenance and flight costs are substantially higher for the F-35 also, but that's relatively manageable for a country that doesn't expect regular deployments and a large supply of spares for their fleet. It's the development cost where the F-35 comes in at more than 10x the price of the Gripen, which is largely irrelevant to small buyers ordering a finished product. Denmark did end up contributing to the F-35 development costs, but only about the cost of another plane, $110M. And in return, they stand to compete for parts-development contracts which wouldn't have been available for the Gripen.