Often they carry only guns, not much point of flying around w live AAM unless u gonna use them.
Not sure if I agree with you on that one. If your pilots just fly around without stores on they gain no experience in how the aircraft performs in a combat situation. Put missiles and bombs on a jet and everything changes. Handling, acceleration, speed, climb, range. Small jets like the Gripen even more so. Plus they look toothless. Not a good thing for a combat jet in a "pure propaganda picture".
Israelis know their propaganda stuff.
