{"id":18829,"date":"2026-07-20T10:03:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T10:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/18829\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T10:03:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T10:03:06","slug":"sweden-eyes-additional-batch-of-gripen-e-jets-to-replace-ukraine-bound-aircraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/18829\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweden eyes additional batch of Gripen E jets to replace Ukraine-bound aircraft"},"content":{"rendered":"

FARNBOROUGH \u2014 Sweden<\/a> is lining up a new order of Gripen E fighter jets to replace a fleet of older C\/D models being gifted to Ukraine, according to the head of the Swedish air force.<\/p>\n

A new \u201cinvestment\u201d in 12 of the Saab-produced multirole combat aircraft will be added to the country\u2019s \u201cprocurement cycle\u201d at a later date, to compensate for the Kyiv-bound planes, according to Maj. Gen. Jonas Wikman, Chief of the Swedish air force.<\/p>\n

Sweden\u2019s future Gripen E buy will take the Nordic nation\u2019s fleet to 72 aircraft, bolstering an original order of 60 units placed in 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ukraine is slated to receive its first Gripen C\/D aircraft next year, in addition to its $2.5 billion acquisition<\/a> of 16 Gripen E fighter jets, signed with Saab earlier this month. More broadly, Ukraine holds an ambition of acquiring up to 150 of the Swedish jets long term.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are naturally looking forward to be a provider of continued support to Ukraine,\u201d Wikman explained.<\/p>\n

The Gripen program is \u201ca big step forward, not only for Ukraine, but also for the defense of Sweden, defense of Europe\u2026..Our ambition to support Ukraine is high,\u201d he added. \u201cTheir ambition to introduce the Gripen is also high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kyiv has long called on Western partners to donate fighter jets in a bid to boost air power and counter Russian attacks. The future Gripen fleet will compliment US produced F-16 fourth generation planes and French Mirage platforms already in service. Paris and Kyiv also signed an agreement last year for up to 100 Rafale fighter jets<\/a>, manufactured by Dassault.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Military analysts have been particularly vocal in making the case for Gripen fighter jets to be sent to Ukraine. A report in November 2022 from the UK\u2019s Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) defense and security think tank deemed the aircraft \u201cby far the most suitable candidate<\/a>\u201d of Western-manufactured combat jets, capable of meeting operational requirements<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The same document also highlighted that the supply of the jets would minimize the risk of Ukraine being subjected to long-range missile strikes by Russia, while noting that the Swedish Air Force\u2019s employment of \u201clow level air superiority tactics from dispersed bases\u201d are similar to Ukrainian Air Force operations.<\/p>\n

Wikman said that under Sweden\u2019s Defense Material Adminstration (FMV), more than \u201ca handful\u201d of the advanced Gripen E fighters have been flown, ahead of a first aircraft formally being introduced to service with the Swedish air force.<\/p>\n

The build up to entry to service is a \u201chuge step forward for us, and it\u2019s going very successfully,\u201d Wikman noted. \u201cIt took us only a few months [to introduce] a new capability.\u201d<\/p>\n

From a production perspective, we are \u201caiming for somewhere between 25 and 30 [Gripen aircraft] across a year,\u201d Saab CEO Micael Johansson told investors last week as part of a company half-year results call. \u201cThat\u2019s sort of doubling almost the capacity that\u2026we are right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FARNBOROUGH \u2014 Sweden is lining up a new order of Gripen E fighter jets to replace a fleet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1247,6850,30,5294,7371,4096,657,6849,25,659,515,26],"class_list":["post-18829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-air-force","tag-dassault","tag-europe","tag-f-16","tag-farnborough-2026","tag-global","tag-gripen","tag-rafale","tag-russia","tag-saab","tag-sweden","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}