Saab JAS 39 Gripen — History, Specs & Stories

Saab JAS 39 Gripen
Aircraft Museum › Multirole Fighter › Gripen

Saab JAS 39 Gripen
“Griffin”

The smart, affordable Swedish canard-delta that keeps embarrassing fighters three times its price — purpose-built to fly from public roads, turn around in ten minutes, and cost less per hour than anything else in the modern Western fleet.

~270+Built across all variants
Mach 2Top speed at altitude
~$4,700/hrCost per flight hour — the lowest
1988–presentFirst flight to frontline today
Photo: Anna Zvereva · CC BY-SA 2.0
RoleMultirole fighter (canard-delta)Era1988 – presentEngineVolvo RM12 (GE F404-derived)OriginSweden · SaabStatusActive frontline fighterCan a civilian fly the Gripen?
The Story

The bargain fighter that punches above its weight

Sweden could never match superpower defence budgets, so Saab built cleverness instead of bulk. Development began under a 1982 contract to replace the Viggen and Draken, and the prototype first flew on 9 December 1988. After a long test programme, the Gripen entered Swedish service in the mid-1990s as a small, agile canard-delta designed around two uniquely Swedish demands: dispersed operations from public roads, and the lowest possible cost per flight hour.

The name “JAS” encodes the concept — Jakt (air-to-air), Attack (air-to-ground) and Spaning (reconnaissance) — one airframe for all three roles. The family grew from the initial A/B versions through the NATO-interoperable C/D export standard to the clean-sheet, AESA-radar Gripen E/F, with roughly 270+ aircraft built across all variants and production of the E ramping up.

A five-or-six-person conscript ground crew can refuel and rearm a Gripen in about ten minutes on a stretch of highway. It was a networked-datalink pioneer, sharing sensor and target data between aircraft decades before “data-centric warfare” became a buzzword. Independent studies have repeatedly rated it the cheapest modern fighter to operate — famously around $4,700 per flight hour — and in 2026 it was chosen by Ukraine for exactly the kind of war it was designed to fight.

Small, cheap and clever — a fighter engineered so a conscript crew and a length of road are all it needs to keep fighting.The Swedish way of airpower — why the Gripen keeps winning
01The Gripen’s design philosophy: how a small nation built a fighter that outvalues giants

Everything about the Gripen flows from a single constraint: Sweden had to defend a large country on a modest budget, against a superpower next door. The answer was not a bigger jet but a smarter system — a light, single-engine fighter that could scatter away from vulnerable airbases onto forest road strips, be serviced by conscripts rather than armies of specialists, and share a networked picture of the battlefield across a whole formation.

That relentless focus on affordability and survivability is why the Gripen keeps beating or shadowing far more expensive rivals into service. It has never been the flashiest export on the market, but for nations that value low running costs, easy dispersal and genuine multirole flexibility over raw payload, the little Swedish fighter is a deliberate, and increasingly popular, trade-off.

Design & Engineering

What makes the Gripen special

01

Canard-delta agility

Close-coupled foreplanes ahead of the delta wing generate lift and let the Gripen be deliberately, aerodynamically unstable. A triplex digital fly-by-wire system flies it for the pilot, turning that instability into ferocious pitch authority and tight, high-alpha turns. The same canards flip down as air-brakes on landing — so the jet stops on a short road without a drag chute.

02

One efficient engine

A single Volvo RM12 — a licence-built, uprated derivative of the General Electric F404 (~80 kN in afterburner) — keeps the Gripen light, simple and cheap to run. Fewer parts, one engine to feed and maintain, and Swedish design-for-maintainability drive its class-leading operating economics. The Gripen E steps up to the more powerful GE F414.

03

Road-base ops & datalink

Built to abandon vulnerable big airbases, the Gripen operates from ~16 m-wide, 500–800 m road strips, turned around by a small conscript-and-technician team in about ten minutes. A secure datalink shares one aircraft’s radar picture across the whole formation. The Gripen E adds an AESA radar, IRST and ~30% more internal fuel.

02The Gripen’s canards: how Saab made an unstable jet safe to fly

A stable aircraft resists changes in attitude; an unstable one wants to depart, but responds to the controls far more quickly. The Gripen is deliberately built unstable in pitch, with its foreplanes and delta wing working together, and a triplex fly-by-wire computer making tiny corrections dozens of times a second to keep it pointed where the pilot wants. The payoff is a jet that changes direction with startling speed for its size. On touchdown the same canards deflect to act as aerodynamic brakes, killing speed so effectively that the Gripen needs neither a long runway nor a drag chute — exactly what a road-strip fighter requires.

03The Gripen’s economics: why it costs a fraction of its rivals to fly

Low cost was designed in, not discovered later. One engine instead of two halves the powerplant maintenance burden; a light airframe burns less fuel; and Saab engineered the jet so a small mixed crew of conscripts and technicians can service it in the field with minimal specialist support. An IHS Jane’s study famously pegged the Gripen’s cost per flight hour at roughly $4,700 — against far higher figures for the F-16, Rafale, Typhoon and F-35. Treat that number as indicative rather than current-year, but the direction is not in doubt: the Gripen is the budget champion of the modern fighter world.

Technical Data

Full Gripen specifications

Baseline note: the figures below describe the single-seat JAS 39C, the NATO-compatible standard that Sweden and every export operator except Brazil flies, and the mark that still makes up most of the world fleet. Deltas for the two-seat D and the larger Gripen E in grey. Where Saab’s published factsheet and the reference works disagree, Saab’s figure is used and the alternative given.

Dimensions & weights

Crew
1 (2 in the D and F)
Length
14.90 m (48 ft 11 in) over the nose probe; 14.10 m (46 ft 3 in) airframe. D 15.60 m; E 15.20 m
Wingspan
8.40 m (27 ft 7 in); E 8.60 m (28 ft 3 in)
Height
4.50 m (14 ft 9 in)
Wing area
30.0 m² (323 sq ft); some Jane’s editions give 25.5 m² for the net delta
Empty weight
6,800 kg (15,000 lb); E about 8,000 kg (17,600 lb)
Internal fuel
~2,400 kg (~5,300 lb); E ~3,400 kg (~7,500 lb), roughly 40 per cent more
Maximum external load
~5,300 kg (~11,700 lb)
Maximum take-off weight
14,000 kg (30,900 lb); E 16,500 kg (36,400 lb)
Store stations
8 (10 on the E, the extra pair on the repositioned wing)
Wing loading
283 kg/m² (58 lb/sq ft) at 8,500 kg
Minimum operating strip
800 × 17 m (2,600 × 56 ft) — a Bas 90 stretch of public road

Performance

Maximum speed, altitude
2,130 km/h (1,323 mph), Mach 2
Maximum speed, sea level
1,400 km/h (870 mph), Mach 1.15
Service ceiling
16,000 m (52,500 ft)
Rate of climb
255 m/s (50,000 ft/min)
Combat radius
~800 km (~500 mi) hi-lo-hi with six 250 kg bombs; ~1,300 km (~800 mi) on a fighter sweep with six missiles
Ferry range
3,000 km (1,860 mi) with drop tanks; the E adds roughly a third again
Take-off run
400 m (1,300 ft)
Landing run
500 m (1,600 ft), thrust reverser not fitted; the canards are drooped as airbrakes
Load factor limits
+9 / −3 g
Thrust-to-weight
0.97 at 8,500 kg; about 1.0 for the E
Combat turnaround
10 minutes air-to-air, 20 minutes air-to-ground with one technician and five conscripts
Engine change
1 hour in the field, by the same six-man team

Propulsion & systems

Engine
1 × Volvo Aero RM12 afterburning turbofan, a licence-built and Swedish-strengthened General Electric F404-GE-400 (E: General Electric F414G-39E)
Thrust
54 kN (12,100 lbf) dry, 80.5 kN (18,100 lbf) with reheat (E: 98 kN / 22,000 lbf)
Fuel and refuelling
~2,400 kg internal plus up to three drop tanks; retractable air refuelling probe on the starboard side of the C onwards
Radar
Ericsson and Saab PS-05/A Mk4 multi-mode pulse-Doppler (E: Leonardo Raven ES-05 AESA mounted on a repositioner, giving a 100° field of regard and a look-behind capability no fixed array has)
Electronic warfare
Saab EWS-39 radar warning and countermeasures with BOL chaff and flare dispensers in the pylons (E: Saab Arexis, including wingtip transmitter pods, one of the most capable fighter EW fits in Europe)
Cockpit and sights
Wide-angle head-up display, three colour multifunction displays, HOTAS; Cobra or Targo helmet-mounted display in most fleets (E: a single wide-area display replacing the three)
Infrared search and track
Not fitted as standard on the C (E: Leonardo Skyward-G)
Ejection seat
Martin-Baker Mk10LS, zero-zero
First flight
JAS 39A prototype 9 December 1988 (first JAS 39C 1996; Gripen E 15 June 2017)
Service entry
JAS 39A with F 7 Såtenäs in June 1996 (C from 2003; Gripen E delivered to Sweden 20 October 2025 and on Brazilian alert duty from February 2026)
Delivered
more than 280 aircraft, marks A to F (204 A/B ordered by Sweden in three batches, most later rebuilt as C/D)
04The Gripen’s costs: cheap to buy, cheaper to fly

The Gripen’s headline appeal is money. Its cost per flight hour — famously around $4,700 in a 2012 IHS Jane’s study — is the lowest of the modern Western fighters, well below the F-16, Rafale, Typhoon and F-35. Treat the exact figure as indicative and dated rather than current-year, because operating costs shift with fuel, usage and accounting method. Unit purchase price varies widely too: a Gripen C sits at the lower end of the $30–85 million range while a fully-equipped Gripen E climbs toward the top. The consistent story across every source is relative: whatever the precise numbers, the Gripen is the affordable option in its class.

Armament & payload

The Gripen mixes European and American weapons, and Saab integrates new ones faster and cheaper than anyone else

Sweden built the Gripen’s mission system around the assumption that its weapons would change, and it has. The aircraft went from Sidewinder and AMRAAM to being the first fighter in the world to take the ramjet-powered Meteor into service in 2016, in the same MS20 software drop that added the Small Diameter Bomb and a better reconnaissance pod. That openness is the commercial argument as much as the tactical one — Saab quotes weapon integration in months and at a fraction of what the same work costs on an American type, which is why South Africa flies A-Darter and Brazil is putting Brazilian weapons on its F-39s. Payload is the honest weakness: eight stations and about 5,300 kg on the C is modest next to a Rafale or a Super Hornet, and the E’s two extra stations only partly close the gap. Fits differ substantially between operators, and several weapons in Saab’s brochures are offered rather than fielded — Taurus in particular is not yet an operational Gripen weapon.

Gun

  • 1 × Mauser BK-27 27 mm revolver cannon in a fairing under the port side of the fuselage
  • 120 rounds, about 1,700 rounds per minute
  • Single-seaters only. The two-seat D gives up the gun to the second cockpit and the rear avionics bay, and the two-seat Gripen F does the same — but the single-seat Gripen E retains it, so the pattern holds exactly as it does for C and D
  • Saab lists it as the aircraft’s close-in and strafing weapon; in Swedish practice it is fired far more often on the range than in any operational context

Air-to-air

  • MBDA Meteor, Swedish designation Rb 101 — the Gripen was the first aircraft in the world to field it, in 2016
  • Diehl IRIS-T, Swedish designation Rb 98, the standard short-range imaging infrared missile
  • Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM (Rb 99) and AIM-9L/M Sidewinder (Rb 74), the original NATO-compatible fit
  • Export-specific rounds: Denel A-Darter and Denel R-Darter in South Africa, Rafael Python and Derby offered elsewhere

Air-to-surface guided

  • Saab RBS-15F and the extended-range RBS-15F ER anti-ship missile (Rb 15) — the Swedish coastal-defence weapon and a genuine long-range threat to shipping
  • AGM-65 Maverick (Rb 75), a legacy fit now largely retired in Swedish service
  • Taurus KEPD 350: not yet an operational Gripen weapon. Sweden began integration in 2025; a Gripen C made the type’s first live launch at Vidsel on 21 August 2026. Operational capability is aimed at 2028 with the MS20 Block 3 and follow-on software, and the Swedish Air Force has said it wants it sooner
  • Brimstone and other stand-off weapons appear in Saab marketing as integrable; no operator has fielded them

Bombs

  • GBU-12 Paveway II, 250 kg class laser-guided
  • GBU-49 Enhanced Paveway II, dual-mode laser and satellite guidance — the Swedish precision weapon of choice
  • GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb, added with MS20 in 2016; up to sixteen can be carried on one aircraft
  • Mk 82, Mk 83 and Mk 84 unguided bombs, plus Swedish practice stores
  • DWS 39 Mjölner submunition dispenser, withdrawn after Sweden signed the cluster munitions convention

Rockets

  • The Swedish Air Force has never fielded an unguided rocket pod on the Gripen. Rockets left Swedish fighter service with the Viggen and the 13.5 cm m/56
  • Saab lists 70 mm and 135 mm rocket pods among the stores the aircraft can be configured for, and South Africa has flown pods in trials
  • No operator is known to have brought an unguided rocket capability into routine service on the type
  • The role rockets would fill — cheap effects against soft targets — is covered in Swedish practice by the gun and by the Small Diameter Bomb

Pods & other stores

  • Rafael Litening III and Litening G4 targeting pod, the standard Swedish and export designation pod
  • Saab modular reconnaissance pod (SPK 39) with electro-optical and infrared sensors and a real-time cockpit picture, improved under MS20
  • 1,100-litre and 1,500-litre drop tanks; typically one on the centreline and two inboard
  • No buddy refuelling store: the Gripen takes fuel through a probe but cannot give it
  • Gripen E adds Arexis electronic-attack wingtip pods, which occupy stations rather than adding them

Three typical loadouts

Swedish quick-reaction alert
Four Meteor on the fuselage and inboard wing stations, two IRIS-T on the wingtips, one 1,100-litre centreline tank, full gun. This is the incident-response fit flown against Russian aircraft over the Baltic.
Road-base close air support
Two GBU-49, a Litening pod, two IRIS-T for self-defence and two drop tanks. Chosen deliberately to be a load that six people can hang on a jet parked under trees beside a road in ten to twenty minutes.
Anti-shipping strike
Two RBS-15F under the wings, two IRIS-T, one centreline tank. The Swedish coastal-defence mission the Gripen inherited from the Viggen, and the reason a small fighter carries a heavy sea-skimming missile at all.

Sourcing caveat: weapon fits above follow Saab and FMV statements, Swedish Air Force practice and operator announcements. Manufacturer material lists a much longer roster of integrable stores than any air force actually flies; where a weapon is offered but not in service it is described that way. Export fleets differ significantly — South Africa, Thailand, Hungary, Czechia and Brazil each carry a different subset, and the Brazilian F-39 programme is adding nationally developed weapons that no Swedish aircraft carries.

Variants

A fighter designed backwards from a stretch of Swedish road

The Gripen makes no sense as a specification sheet and complete sense as an answer to Bas 90. Sweden’s Cold War dispersal doctrine assumed its main airbases would be cratered in the opening hours of a war, so the air force built a network of reinforced road strips 800 metres long and 17 metres wide, each with dispersed hides and pre-positioned fuel and weapons. Every important Gripen design decision follows from that: the short-field landing, the drooped canards used as airbrakes on rollout, the auxiliary power unit that lets the aircraft start itself, the systems designed for diagnosis by a laptop rather than a hangar. The turnaround crew is one trained technician and five conscripts, and the target is ten minutes to refuel and rearm for an air-to-air sortie, twenty for air-to-ground.

Getting there was not smooth. The digital flight control system, which had to hold an unstable canard delta steady at low speed on a narrow strip, twice lost the argument with the pilot. Prototype 39-1 was destroyed on landing at Linköping on 2 February 1989 after a pilot-induced oscillation in pitch; test pilot Lars Rådeström ejected with a broken elbow. Saab took the problem to Calspan in the United States, which flew the modified Lockheed NT-33A variable-stability testbed to reproduce and cure the control laws, and flight testing resumed some fifteen months later. It was not enough: on 8 August 1993 production aircraft 39102 departed controlled flight during a low roll over the Stockholm Water Festival, in front of a crowd, and Rådeström ejected again. The investigation again found excessive gain on rapid, large stick inputs. Two public crashes in four years nearly killed the programme; the fix, a further reworking of the pitch control laws, has held for three decades since.

The line splits cleanly into the small original aircraft, the NATO-compatible C/D, and the substantially larger E/F that shares a name and rather little else.

JAS 39A (1988 first flight, 1996 service, 104 built)
The original single-seater. Swedish-only systems, no refuelling probe, Swedish datalink. Most survivors were rebuilt to C standard.
JAS 39B (1996, 14 built)
Two-seat A. Stretched fuselage, no gun, reduced internal fuel. Trainer and conversion aircraft.
JAS 39C (from 2002)
The NATO-interoperable standard and the world’s default Gripen: retractable refuelling probe, on-board oxygen generation, Link 16, colour displays, helmet-mounted sight and full NATO weapons clearance.
JAS 39D (from 2002)
Two-seat C. Half a metre longer than the single-seater, no gun, otherwise identical avionics. Used for conversion and increasingly for two-crew strike and electronic-warfare work.
MS20 and MS20 Block 3 (2016 / from 2026)
Software standards rather than airframes, but they define what a C can do: MS20 brought Meteor, the Small Diameter Bomb, an improved reconnaissance pod, ground-collision avoidance and better Link 16. Block 3 deliveries begin in 2026 for the roughly 60 C/D Sweden is keeping alongside the E.
Gripen Demo / NG (39-7, first flew 2008)
The testbed for the E: F414 engine, wing-mounted undercarriage, more fuel, AESA radar. Everything that made the E a different aeroplane was proved here.
Gripen E / JAS 39E (first flight 15 June 2017)
A new aircraft under an old name. F414G engine at 98 kN, about 40 per cent more internal fuel, undercarriage moved from the fuselage out into the wings to make room for it, ten store stations, Raven ES-05 AESA on a repositioner, Arexis electronic warfare and a rewritten avionics architecture that separates flight-critical from mission software so weapons can be added without recertifying the aeroplane. Retains the gun.
Gripen F / JAS 39F (two-seat E)
Two-seat version, 15.9 m long, no gun — the same trade the D makes against the C. Brazil is the launch customer for the type and is assembling it at Gavião Peixoto.
F-39E and F-39F Gripen (Brazil, 36 ordered: 28 E and 8 F)
Brazilian designation, with Embraer as industrial partner, local assembly and a Brazilian weapons and datalink fit. First Brazilian-built Gripen E rolled out on 25 March 2026; the type stood its first quick-reaction alert over Brasília in February 2026.
Sea Gripen (studied 2009–2015, never built)
A carrier-capable proposal aimed at India and Brazil. It never progressed past study work, and the structural penalty of catapult and arrested recovery on so light an airframe was always the obstacle.

Closing caveat: Gripen totals are easy to double-count because many Swedish A and B airframes were rebuilt into C and D rather than newly built, and because leased aircraft appear in two national inventories at once. The figures above count airframes produced, not contract line items.

Timeline

Four decades of the Gripen

1982

Programme launched

Saab is awarded the contract to develop the JAS 39 as a single-type replacement for the Viggen and Draken.

9 Dec 1988

First flight

The Gripen prototype takes to the air for the first time, beginning a long flight-test programme.

1996–97

Enters service

The first operational Swedish Air Force squadron stands up; the Gripen joins the frontline.

2005–06

NATO leases begin

The Czech Republic and Hungary begin leasing Gripen C/D for NATO air-policing duties.

2008–12

First export beyond Europe

South Africa takes delivery — the first operator outside Europe — and Thailand follows.

2011

Libya reconnaissance

Swedish Gripens fly tactical reconnaissance in NATO’s Operation Unified Protector over Libya.

15 Jun 2017

Gripen E first flight

The clean-sheet, AESA-equipped new-generation Gripen E makes its maiden flight.

20 Oct 2025

Gripen E in service

The Gripen E formally enters Swedish Air Force service at Satenas with the F 7 Wing.

2026

Brazil builds it, Ukraine buys it

The first Brazilian-built Gripen E is unveiled in March; Ukraine orders the Gripen E under a June framework.

Stories & Eyewitnesses

From the flight line: twelve Gripen stories

Road warrior

Built for the highway

Sweden’s fighter that doesn’t need an airbase.

Read the full story
Cold-War Sweden assumed its airbases would be bombed on day one, so it built a jet that lives without them. The Gripen takes off and lands on 16-metre-wide public roads, hides in forests, and disperses across dozens of hidden strips — making the whole fleet nearly impossible to catch on the ground. It is the only Western fighter purpose-built from the outset for sustained road-base operations.
Cheapest to fly

The $4,700 fighter

Modern airpower that doesn’t bankrupt you.

Read the full story
An IHS Jane’s study pegged the Gripen at roughly $4,700 per flight hour — against about $7,000 for an F-16, ~$16,500 for a Rafale, ~$18,000 for a Typhoon and ~$21,000 for an F-35A. One engine, light weight and design-for-maintenance make it the bargain of the modern fighter world. Treat the figure as indicative, but the ranking is not in doubt.
Networked

The datalink pioneer

Sharing the picture before it was cool.

Read the full story
Long before “data-centric warfare” was fashionable, Gripens were fusing their radar pictures over a secure datalink. Four jets could hunt as one, with a single aircraft radiating while its silent wingmen shot — a networking edge Saab baked in from the 1990s and that the rest of the world is only now racing to match.
New gen

Gripen E grows up

Same silhouette, all-new fighter.

Read the full story
Despite looking like its predecessor, the Gripen E is a clean-sheet aircraft: AESA radar, an IRST sensor, the more powerful GE F414 engine and ~30% more internal fuel. It entered Swedish service in October 2025, built to survive contested skies where air superiority can no longer be assumed.
Brazil

Made in Gaviao Peixoto

A Swedish jet with a Brazilian passport.

Read the full story
Brazil ordered 36+ Gripen E/F — local designation F-39 — with a deal centred on technology transfer. In March 2026 Embraer rolled out the first Gripen E fully assembled in Brazil, turning a customer into a co-producer and giving South America a homegrown fighter line.
Turnaround

Ten minutes, six people

Refuel, rearm, relaunch.

Read the full story
A small mixed team — traditionally conscripts led by one technician — can turn a Gripen around in about ten minutes on a roadside strip: refuelled, rearmed and back in the air. No sprawling support tail, no giant hangars — exactly the resilience big-base air forces are now scrambling to relearn.
Agility

Canards that bite

Small jet, savage turn.

Read the full story
The close-coupled foreplanes and deliberately unstable delta layout, flown by triplex fly-by-wire, give the Gripen ferocious pitch authority and high-alpha turning. The same canards flip down as air-brakes on touchdown, so it stops on a short road without a drag chute.
Underdog

The export fighter that keeps winning

Punching above its weight.

Read the full story
Without a superpower budget behind it, the Gripen still beat or shadowed bigger rivals into service with NATO’s Czech Republic and Hungary, plus South Africa, Thailand and Brazil — proving a small nation’s fighter can hold its own in a market dominated by American and Franco-European giants.
Libya

The recon missions

Sweden’s one shooting-war deployment.

Read the full story
In 2011, eight Swedish Gripens joined NATO’s Libya operation — but flew tactical reconnaissance, not strike or air-to-air, under Sweden’s constitutional restrictions. It remains the type’s most significant operational deployment to date and a showcase of its sensor and endurance credentials.
Ukraine

The war it was designed for

Decades of planning, one real test.

Read the full story
In June 2026 Ukraine signed for ~16 new Gripen E plus ~16 donated Swedish C/D jets, under a framework reaching up to 150 aircraft. The dispersed-basing, road-strip fighter built to fight Russia is finally heading to the front it was imagined for.
Baltic

Guardian of the north

Intercepting the Bear.

Read the full story
From home bases, Swedish Gripens routinely scramble to shadow Russian aircraft over the Baltic, while Czech and Hungarian Gripens hold NATO quick-reaction alert over Central Europe — the type’s daily, unglamorous, essential job.
One jet, three roles

JAS = fighter, attacker, scout

The Swiss-army fighter.

Read the full story
The very name encodes the concept: Jakt, Attack, Spaning. One airframe, one training pipeline and one logistics chain cover air defence, ground attack and reconnaissance — the multirole idea taken to its most disciplined, budget-conscious conclusion.
Gallery

The Gripen in pictures

The new-generation Gripen E a clean-sheet aircraft with AESA radar and the GE F414 engine.
The new-generation Gripen E — a clean-sheet aircraft with AESA radar and the GE F414 engine.Photo: Airwolfhound · CC BY-SA 2.0
A Swedish JAS 39C in dramatic silhouette at RIAT 2023 the canard-delta planform in full.
A Swedish JAS 39C in dramatic silhouette at RIAT 2023 — the canard-delta planform in full.Photo: Julian Herzog · CC BY 4.0
A Czech Air Force Gripen lifts off from Caslav the type built for short strips and dispersed basing.
A Czech Air Force Gripen lifts off from Caslav — the type built for short strips and dispersed basing.Photo: Milan Nykodym · CC BY-SA 2.0
Inside the Gripen: multifunction displays and a modern glass cockpit.
Inside the Gripen: multifunction displays and a modern glass cockpit.Photo: Rhk111 · CC BY-SA 4.0
A South African Air Force JAS 39C the Gripens first export customer beyond Europe.
A South African Air Force JAS 39C — the Gripen’s first export customer beyond Europe.Photo: Alan Wilson · CC BY-SA 2.0
A Brazilian Air Force Gripen F-39E now assembled locally with Embraer.
A Brazilian Air Force Gripen F-39E — now assembled locally with Embraer.Photo: Isac Nobrega / PR · CC BY 2.0
Watch

The Gripen in motion

A dedicated Gripen video is coming soon.

Watch

The Saab JAS-39 Gripen in motion

Megaprojects — one of the most-watched Saab JAS-39 Gripen films on YouTube.

Operations

Where the Gripen flies

Operators today

Six air forces fly delivered Gripens, and one of the six can barely fly them

These bars count delivered aircraft on charge, not orders. Sweden dominates and will for years, now operating the first Gripen E alongside a C/D fleet it intends to keep flying into the 2030s. The rest of the map is a study in how a small country sells fighters: two NATO members flying Swedish government-owned aircraft on lease, one Southeast Asian customer, one African fleet that has been more grounded than flying, and Brazil, which is not so much a customer as a second production line.

Sweden~95
South Africa26
Hungary18
Czechia14
Brazil~12
Thailand11

These are estimates, and the paper count flatters several of them. South Africa’s 26 were all delivered but the great majority have spent years unflyable for want of a support contract and flying hours; only a handful are airworthy at any time. Czechia’s 14 are leased from the Swedish state, with the lease extended to 2035. Hungary’s 18 — 16 C and 2 D — began as a lease and converted to ownership, the last two arriving in June 2026. Thailand has 11 of the 12 delivered, one having been lost in 2017. Brazil has taken about 12 of 36 on order and deliveries are continuing. Nothing has yet been delivered to Ukraine, which placed a firm order for 16 Gripen E in 2026 under a letter of intent covering far more, nor to Colombia, nor for the balance of Brazil’s 36. Sources: Saab and FMV statements, IISS The Military Balance and FlightGlobal World Air Forces; entries that could not be corroborated are omitted.

Combat Record

A jet built to be used, not to boast

The Gripen has seen limited combat and no confirmed air-to-air kills. Its most-cited deployment was Sweden’s contribution to the 2011 NATO Libya campaign, where eight Gripens flew tactical reconnaissance — not strike or air-to-air. Beyond that, its record is overwhelmingly peacetime air policing: Baltic intercepts of Russian aircraft, Czech and Hungarian NATO quick-reaction alert, and Thai, South African and Brazilian air defence. Ukraine’s 2026 order is expected to give the type its first true high-intensity test.

2011Libya reconnaissance deployment
6Air forces flying it today
~$4,700/hrCheapest modern fighter to operate

Compare the combat record of every military aircraft. Figures as of July 2026.

Questions & Answers

Everything people ask about the Gripen

Can I fly in a Gripen?
No. The Gripen is a frontline, in-production Saab fighter flown only by air forces — there is no civilian-operated example, and MiGFlug does not offer Gripen flights. However you can fly several genuine military jets today — the L-39, F-104, MiG-15, Vampire and more. Explore them at migflug.com/flights-prices/.
How fast is the Gripen?
About Mach 2 at altitude. Some spec sheets cite ~Mach 1.8 depending on altitude and configuration.
Is it really the cheapest fighter to operate?
Yes — independent studies (IHS Jane’s) rated it the lowest cost-per-flight-hour modern Western fighter, around $4,700 per hour, well below the F-16, Rafale, Typhoon and F-35. Treat the figure as indicative rather than current-year.
Can it operate from roads?
Yes. It’s purpose-designed for dispersed operations, taking off and landing on ~16 m-wide public road strips and turning around in about ten minutes with a small crew.
How does it compare to the Rafale and Typhoon?
The Gripen is smaller, single-engine, less heavily armed and shorter-legged — but dramatically cheaper to buy and fly, easier to disperse, and highly networked. For nations that value affordability and survivability over raw payload, it’s a deliberate, competitive trade-off.
What is the Gripen E?
The new generation — a larger, clean-sheet aircraft with AESA radar, IRST, the GE F414 engine and ~30% more fuel. It entered Swedish service in October 2025.
How many have been built?
Roughly 270+ across all variants (A/B/C/D and the E/F), with Gripen E production ongoing.
The part of the collection you can touch

You can’t fly the Gripen.
These, you can.

Some legends only live in museums — others are fuelled and waiting. MiGFlug has put civilians in real military jet cockpits since 2004.

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Related Aircraft

Continue the tour

The RivalEurofighter TyphoonEurope’s bigger, twin-engine canard-delta — more payload and reach, but far costlier to buy and fly than the Gripen.Read the Typhoon storyThe BenchmarkF-16 Fighting FalconThe Western fighter the Gripen is most often measured against — another light, agile multirole jet, built by the thousand.Read the F-16 storyThe HeavyweightF-35 Lightning IIThe stealth benchmark of the modern fleet — more capable but many times more expensive per hour than the frugal Gripen.Read the F-35 story
Sources & Further Reading

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