Gripen vs F-16: Ukraine announces JAS 39 fighter jet deal with Sweden to aid air defences
Ukraine will receive 16 Swedish Gripen aircraft and buy 20 more through an EU support loan scheme to strengthen its air power, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky has said in a joint press conference with Sweden's prime minister Ulf Kristersson.
The UK government also revealed that essential parts of the aircraft will be built in Britain.
This latest deal will mean that Kyiv will have an agile and highly capable multirole aircraft to defend itself following the invasion of the country more than four years ago.
Stockholm will send the older model C/D jets to Kyiv next year as a temporary solution.
"Gripen is the best and optimal choice for Ukraine. So…, we take the next major step on this joint journey," Mr Kristersson said at Uppsala air base.
"We need these jets, and for us, this is really a new page for Ukraine," Mr Zelensky said.
The new jets, models E and F, are expected to be delivered to Kyiv starting in 2030.
BFBS Forces News has looked at the relative qualities of the Gripen compared to its Western counterpart, the F-16, which Ukraine has had since 2024.
Saab Gripen fighter jet
The Gripen fighter jet offers several distinct advantages for the Ukrainian armed forces, including cost-effectiveness.
"One of the things that the Gripen is really good at is turn rate, doing things really fast, but at the same time the Gripen is also super easy to fly," Major Henrik Björling, a Swedish air force Gripen display pilot, said.
This could be an advantage in the training of Ukrainian pilots.
In terms of cost-effectiveness, the Saab combat aircraft is the cheapest to operate per hour among all Nato jets.
It can also be flown from dispersed air bases like ordinary roads, as demonstrated by when Sweden's air force practised landing the fighter jet on a road near Gothenburg two years ago.
The fighter jet has a reinforced landing gear that props the plane high enough above the asphalt to prevent debris from getting sucked down the jet intake.
Six nations currently use the Gripen C/D models, including the Czech Republic, Hungary and South Africa, and the UK has acquired the type for training purposes at the Empire Test Pilots' School.
The Gripen JAS 39C/D is a multirole fighter jet with a combat turnaround time of only 10 minutes, can operate with few personnel, and can be deployed in several roles, such as air-to-air, air-to-surface, and reconnaissance.
The aircraft, which can be refuelled in mid-air, is highly adaptable in its weaponry, as it can carry various weapon systems from the US and Europe.
These weapons systems include air-to-surface missiles and guided bombs, according to the Saab website.
Meanwhile, the newer model, the Gripen JAS 39E/F, which takes slightly longer to get ready for combat (15-25 minutes), is built for advanced electronic warfare and combines AI to help the pilot decide on their course of action during operations.
Alongside the aircraft delivery, Meteor long-range air-to-air missiles will be sent to Ukraine. The Gripen JAS 39E can carry up to seven of these missiles as well as a couple of IRIS-T missiles.
F-16 Fighting Falcon
The other fighter jet that Ukraine could have chosen to boost its air defences is the F-16 Fighting Falcon.
The main Western jet used in Ukraine, the 'Fighting Falcon', is a single-engine, multirole fighter jet that can carry bombs despite its dogfighting roots.
Similar to the Gripen, the jet's maintenance is said to be comparatively straightforward.
Around 3,000 F-16s are in service in 25 countries, meaning it is the West's most widely produced military jet.
In 2024, the first batch of F-16s arrived in Ukraine after months of pressure from Kyiv.
Ukraine had been promised around 85 F-16 Fighting Falcons from several Nato nations, but fewer than 30 are thought to have been delivered so far.
One of the advantages of the F-16 is that it has a vast array of technology, such as a phased array radar that can see targets close to 160km (100 miles) away in the air and on the ground, and then follow and engage dozens of them simultaneously.
The 'Fighting Falcon' can carry short-range AIM-9 Sidewinders, the most commonly used air-to-air missiles in the West.
While, the aircraft can also be loaded with the longer-distance AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range air-to-air missiles.
The jet also uses Link 16, Nato's wifi network, which means it can speak to other Nato assets, like the AWACS early warning aircraft and doesn't need to use its own radar.
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