The JAS-39E is a single-seat aircraft built by the Swedish SAAB company. SAAB’s website states it is designed for air forces facing “more pronounced threats of wider territories to secure.”
It perfectly represents the Swedish defensive philosophy, emphasizing dispersed air operations and rapid maintenance. The Gripen E model’s new avionics package places it at the very apex of dogfighting fighter jets.
JAS 39 Gripen. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
The Gripen E incorporates cutting-edge technologies, the latest systems, sensors, weapons, and pods to deliver air superiority in highly contested environments. Silent networking and total sensor fusion across a tactical air unit to blind and confuse the enemy, according to Saab.
The Gripen E Can Land, Refuel, Rearm Anywhere
The Gripen E is the centerpiece of Sweden’s Bas 90 air basing system, which eschews large, centralized air bases in favor of small groups of aircraft dispersed throughout the country. Dispersed air bases make them harder to target and hit with missiles targeting airfields.
The Bas 90 defense program takes from lessons learned from the 1967 Six-Day War, in which the Israeli Air Force destroyed virtually the entire Egyptian fleet of aircraft, as well as dozens of other aircraft in other Arab countries. If a shooting war with Russia happens, the Swedes have done their research and homework, resulting in a strategy that works perfectly for them.
Bas 90 reduces the risk of having their aircraft taken out on the ground by its nationwide network of small, austere air bases. Gripens can leverage public roads to land and take off at these dispersed locations, needing just a 500-meter strip of pavement. A good thrust-to-weight ratio, robust landing gear, and flight control systems aid this.
Unlike more advanced and much more capable aircraft, such as the most advanced aircraft in the world, the F-35, the Gripen was explicitly designed for rapid servicing by young conscripts without much training or specialized experience.
Refueling and rearming the Gripen E for an air-to-air mission takes less than 20 minutes, and only a limited number of ground crew and equipment are needed, ensuring rapid re-engagement. With low maintenance requirements per flight hour, the Gripen E spends more time airborne than in the maintenance shop.
The General Electric Engine Powers The J-39E to Mach 2
The Gripen E has an outstanding power-to-weight ratio, being powered by a single General Electric F414 turbofan engine, and can reach maximum speeds of Mach 2 (approximately 1,500 miles per hour). The F414-GE-39E, a single-engine variant of the proven F414-GE-400, has been chosen to power Saab’s Next Generation Gripen aircraft.
The General Electric engine allows the Gripen E to supercruise without kicking in the afterburners. GE has said that utilizing new fuels would increase the range up to 20 percent.
The F414 engine features 3D aerodynamics, an improved high-pressure turbine, and an advanced cooling system (16 percent more airflow than the F404 fan). The JAS-39E’s ferry range is 2,000 miles, but its combat range is 930 miles.
Armament Is Improved And More Lethal
The JAS-39E has 10 hard points, offers the best-in-class weapons and pods worldwide, and has unrivaled ease of store integration. Gripen E can conduct “air-to-air, air-to-surface, and reconnaissance missions. Air supremacy is achieved by carrying up to seven Meteor Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missiles and two Within Visual Range IRIS-T missiles. Weapons like these, combined with the ability to use offensive and defensive means simultaneously, enable the Gripen E to detect, engage, and suppress or destroy targets effectively.”
The Meteor missile is 3.65 meters long, weighs 185 kg, travels at Mach 4, and has a classified range of 300+ km. The IRIS-T missile is 2.94 meters long, weighs 87.4 kg, travels at Mach 3, and has a range of up to 40 km.
The Gripen E also carries the 27 mm Mauser BK-27 cannon and can carry air-to-air missiles such as the AIM-9 Sidewinder, air-to-ground missiles such as the AGM-65 Maverick, and anti-ship missiles such as the RBS-15.
The JAS-39E’s Avionics “Makes Generations A Thing of the Past”
The Saab Gripen’s revolutionary avionics design separates mission system functionality from flight-critical software, allowing it to adapt to new operational needs and support smooth capability growth without affecting the need for recertification.
Gripen can be updated to ensure continuous capability growth as soon as new technology becomes available. This ability changes the paradigm of extensive and costly mid-life upgrades that burden competing fighter fleets’ availability. Saab says the aircraft’s core architecture permits upgrades to the mission software without affecting flight-critical functions.
“We code in the morning and fly in the afternoon,” explained Johan Segertoft, head of the Gripen business. “In software, there are no generations, only speed.”
JAS 39 Gripen. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
All Gripen’s avionics are fully integrated using five MIL-STD-1553B digital data buses in what is described as “sensor fusion.” This total integration makes the Gripen a “programmable” aircraft, allowing software updates to be introduced over time to increase performance and allow for additional operational roles and equipment.
The Ada programming language was adopted for the Gripen and is used for the primary flight controls on the final prototypes from 1996 onwards and all subsequent production aircraft. The Gripen’s software is continuously being improved to add new capabilities, compared to the preceding Viggen, which was updated only in an 18-month schedule.
The Gripen E uses a new active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, Raven ES-05, based on the Vixen AESA radar family from Selex ES. The new radar can scan over a significantly increased field of view and improved range.
The Gripen E also integrates the Skyward-G Infra-red search and track (IRST) sensor, which can passively detect thermal emissions from air and ground targets in the aircraft’s vicinity. The Gripen E sensors are claimed to be able to detect low radar cross-section (RCS) targets beyond visual range. Targets are tracked by a “best sensor dominates” system, either by onboard sensors or through the radar’s Transmitter Auxiliary Unit (TAU) data link function.
The JAS-39E Gripen’s Cost Makes It More Attractive
The cost per aircraft is about $85 million, considerably less than the $100 million F-35. Its cost per flight hour is $5,800, easily beating the F-35’s cost of about $35,000 per flight hour.
Maintenance is cheaper and easier to perform, and ordinary airmen can carry out most functions regarding refueling and rearming.
The JAS-39E Gripen Is An Outstanding 4th-generation aircraft
Although Saab has said that the Gripen E has made generational talk “redundant,” the fact remains that although it is an outstanding fighter aircraft that can hold its own against anything, it is still a fourth-generation aircraft that doesn’t have stealth capability.
The aircraft wasn’t designed for stealth and lacked the advanced radar-evading features of 5th-generation fighters like the F-35. Therefore, the Gripen E’s design is more conventional, without the specialized shapes and materials to minimize radar signatures, making it more easily detectable by radar.
The aircraft uses jamming and countermeasures to protect itself, whereas the stealth of other fighters, such as the F-35, is invisible to radar. And while the sensor fusion of the Gripen E is very good, the F-35’s is still better.
JAS 39 Gripen. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
This is why Sweden is interested in building a fifth-generation or sixth-generation aircraft. They have worked the Gripen E to its absolute utmost, and it is time for a replacement. Newer fifth-generation aircraft outperform the Gripen E in terms of speed and performance, but the fighter is a good choice for countries that can’t afford to purchase the stealth fighters on the market.
Saab has marketed the aircraft well and has several customers, including Sweden, Brazil, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.
Canada signed a contract with the US to buy F-35s, but it is now considering ditching the deal due to the tariff issue and its poor relationship with Washington and President Trump.
Although the Canadian Air Force would be better off with an F-35 in the long run, tensions are running high in Canada right now due to pressures in the Arctic. However, the Gripen is an outstanding multi-role aircraft and should be around for years to come.
About the Author: Steve Balestrieri
Steve Balestrieri is a 19FortyFive National Security Columnist. He served as a US Army Special Forces NCO and Warrant Officer. In addition to writing for 19FortyFive, he covers the NFL for PatsFans.com and is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA). His work was regularly featured in many military publications.
