Key Points and Summary – Sweden’s JAS 39E/F Gripen fighter pairs modern sensors and software with a doctrine built for survival today.
-Designed for Bas 90 dispersed operations, it can launch from short road strips and be turned quickly by small crews—ideal for smaller air forces facing Russia-like threats.
JAS 39 Gripen. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-The E-model adds the Raven ES-05 AESA radar, Skyward-G IRST, an F414 engine, and an open-architecture mission system built for rapid updates.
-It carries Meteor and IRIS-T, plus air-to-surface and anti-ship options.
With low operating costs, it offers high-end capability without stealth, shaping global debates from Sweden’s future fighter plans to Canada’s mix of F-35s and Gripens.
JAS 39 Gripen E Fighter from Sweden Summed Up in 1 Word: Survivable
The JAS 39E Gripen is an excellent aircraft prized for its advanced tech (AESA radar, powerful F414 engine, digital systems), operational flexibility (it can operate from dispersed roads, low maintenance for conscripts), and cost-effectiveness, making it a highly capable multi-role fighter, especially for smaller nations needing independent, versatile air power against larger threats like Russia.
The JAS 39E/F, often just called the Gripen, is a highly maneuverable, multi-role fighter aircraft developed by Sweden. The Gripen has been in service since 1996 and is a mainstay of the Swedish Air Force, with several other nations also adopting it.
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 acme 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 JAS 39 Gripen E Was Designed For War Against Russia:
The JAS 39 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. This makes them harder to target and hit with missiles targeting airfields.
The Bas 90 defense program is taken 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 use public roads to land and take off at these dispersed locations, requiring only a 500-meter strip of pavement. A good thrust-to-weight ratio, robust landing gear, and flight control systems aid this.
Unlike more advanced, much more capable aircraft, such as the F-35, the Gripen was explicitly designed for rapid servicing by young conscripts with little 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.
U.S. Air Force Maj. Kristin Wolfe performs a demonstration in the F-35A Lightning II during at the Reno Air Races in Reno, Nevada, September 19, 2021. The F-35 Lightning II Demonstration Team is based out of Hill Air Force Base, Utah. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Nicolas Myers)
The Gripen AI Unmanned Variant
In May of 2025, a Saab JAS 39 Gripen E with an artificial intelligence (AI) agent named “Centaur” embedded in its mission systems, the aircraft was put through various drills.
During multiple sorties, the Project Beyond experiment, a collaboration between Saab and the German AI company Helsing, allowed Centaur to fly the aircraft through beyond-visual-range (BVR) engagements, “recommending missile shots at a Gripen training aircraft from a distance and evading disadvantageous flight paths that could turn dicey in a closer dogfight.”
The experiment marked the first time an operational frontline fighter jet has flown with an AI agent in BVR conditions in a real-world, non-simulator environment, a major milestone in military aviation.
The project highlights the Gripen E’s modular, open-architecture software system, which allows for rapid integration of new technologies without extensive physical modifications.
The J 39E Powerful Engines Push It 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 activating afterburners. GE has said that by utilizing new fuels would increase the range by 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.
JAS 39E’s Blended Armaments
The JAS-39E Gripen has 10 hard points, offers the best-in-class weapons and pods worldwide, and has an unrivalled ease of store integration. The Gripen offers a nice blend of US and Swedish weapons, making it versatile and deadly.
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, estimated at 62+ miles. The Meteor also touts its large “No Escape Zone,” which means it can bring doom to adversarial airplanes before they know what is happening.
The Meteor’s ramjet-throttled propulsion system gives it the speed to knock out a bogey from long range and make enemy aviators pay the price. According to Saab’s website, this missile features “a jamming-resistant active radar seeker and proximity fuse.”
Adversaries can be engaged and destroyed at very long ranges, as the Meteor can lock on to a target and resist countermeasures. The two-way datalink enables the launch aircraft to provide mid-course target updates or retargeting, including data from off-board third parties.
F-35. Image: Creative Commons.
The IRIS-T missile has a length of 2.94 meters, weighs 87.4 kg, travels at Mach 3, and has a range of up to 25 km. Enhanced acquisition range, higher hit accuracy, and warhead effectiveness as well as superior resistance to countermeasures. IRIS-T can also successfully engage targets behind the launching aircraft and be used in lock-on before and after launch operations.
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 avionics design separates mission system functionality from flight-critical software to adapt to new operational needs and support smooth capability growth without affecting the need for recertification.
As soon as new technology becomes available, Gripen can be updated accordingly to ensure continuous capability growth. This changes the paradigm of extensive and costly mid-life upgrades that burden the availability of competing fighter fleets.
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.”
F-35 stealth fighter. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
All of Gripen’s avionics are fully integrated via five MIL-STD-1553B digital data buses, a process described as “sensor fusion.” This total integration makes the Gripen a “programmable” aircraft, enabling software updates over time to improve performance and expand 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, unlike the preceding Viggen, which was updated only on 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 latest 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 sensors of the Gripen E are claimed 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 Operational Costs Are Low:
The flyaway cost per aircraft is about $85 million, considerably lower than the $100 million for the F-35. And its costs per flight hour are $5,800, which easily beats the F-35, which runs about $35,000 per flight hour.
Maintenance is cheaper, easier to perform, and ordinary airmen can carry out most refueling and rearming functions.
The JAS-39E Gripen Is An Outstanding 4.5 Generation aircraft:
Although Saab has said that the Gripen E has made generational talk “redundant,” the fact remains that, although an outstanding fighter aircraft that can hold its own against anything, it is still a 4th-generation aircraft without stealth capability.
The aircraft wasn’t designed for stealth and lacks 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.
JAS 39 Gripen. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
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.
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 JAS 39 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. Those include Sweden, Brazil, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.
It has found a niche among countries that wish to break their reliance on the United States for its defense purchases. However, the Gripen’s engine, the GE-F41,4 is also subject to US trade restrictions.
Will Canada Stick With the F-35 or Opt for the JAS 39E Gripen?
Canada signed a contract with the US to buy 88 F-35s, but it is now considering ditching 72 aircraft in the deal due to tariff issues and its poor relations with Washington and President Trump. While they are already obligated to purchase 16 F-35s, Saab has pushed Canada to reconsider the Gripen for the remainder.
Although there is a strong sentiment for the F-35 within the Royal Canadian Air Force, some in the Canadian government would like a combined air fleet of F-35s and Gripens. This would make things more difficult from a logistical and training standpoint.
As we have often posted here, the JAS 39 Gripen is the best fighter aircraft not named the F-22, F-35, or the upcoming F-47.
It is an outstanding 4.5-generation fighter, ideally suited to Sweden’s defensive strategy, and to countries that can’t afford to buy or operate a fifth-generation stealth aircraft.
About the Author: Steve Balestrieri
Steve Balestrieri is a National Security Columnist. He served as a US Army Special Forces NCO and Warrant Officer. In addition to writing on defense, 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.
