Rollout for Gripen E

[Zimme83]

First Gripen E was presented at SAAB yesterday (deliveries scheduled to start in 2018 for SwAF):


The Meteor have also been declared fully operational with the SwAF along with the SDB:

[save]

But operational some years later according to Swedish news media.

[Mister Fork]

I heard through the rumour mill that Canada is also looking at the new Grippen E instead of the F-35 clusterflutter  ...

[Zimme83]

But operational some years later according to Swedish news media.

Guess it takes some time to train the pilots and ground crews, plan is to have the C/D:s replaced by E/F:s by 2023.

[GScholz]

Beautiful little plane.

[DaveBB]

And it's stealthy too.

J/K.  The radar signature of the Gripen E is probably on par with the B-52.

[Zimme83]

Not really, it's a lot stealthier than most conventional fighters, just not as extreme as the Raptor.  Stealth isnt just about the skin and shape. If the Raptor has the rcs of a golf ball the Gripen has the rcs of a bird.

Same is for planes like the Rafale and EF, all have a lot of rcs reducing technology. Stealth isn't free and in some cases is not worth the cost to go full stealth.

[mipoikel]

Not really, it's a lot stealthier than most conventional fighters, just not as extreme as the Raptor.  Stealth isnt just about the skin and shape. If the Raptor has the rcs of a golf ball the Gripen has the rcs of a bird.

Same is for planes like the Rafale and EF, all have a lot of rcs reducing technology. Stealth isn't free and in some cases is not worth the cost to go full stealth.

And what Ive heard, new gripen (maybe older too) can see f35 already...

[oboe]

Congratulations to Saab!

I would really like to see a version of the Gripen in DCS World. 

[Zimme83]

And what Ive heard, new gripen (maybe older too) can see f35 already...

Depends on  what you mean with 'see', the F-35 isnt invisible and can be detected both by radar and IRS-T but the few that know the deails about that will not tell us.

But having ground and air based radars in a network were they can Exchange infromation should increase the possibility to detect stealth fighters.

I've also noted that the wingtip rails are significantly bigger on the E than on the C version so I assume they are hiding some new sensors/ecm there. 

[GScholz]

Last time I checked the front aspect RCS (the only aspect the Gripen can be called "stealthy") of the Gripen NG was 0.5 m2. Has this changed?

[Zimme83]

There are numbers from 0,1 m^2 and up, pick whichever you want. None of them can be 100% confirmed anyway.

[GScholz]

If it's that low I assume it is in a clean configuration with no stores on, since the weapons themselves will have a total RCS higher than that. Let's assume best case and give the Gripen E a front aspect RCS of 0.1 m2... that's still 70 times more than the F-35 with its 0.00143 m2 (golf ball).

[Zimme83]

The Gripen has higher rcs than f-35 yes, but on the other hand it did not take >25 years and 300+ billion dollars to develop the Gripen NG so everything comes with a prize tag. With more advanced irs-t systems Non-stealth fighters is given the capability to detect a stealth fighter even at longer range, SAAB claims that Gripen NG can detect Stealth aircrafts at BVR range. We of course dont know the exact capability but it seems clear that stealth fighters have lost a lot of the advantage they had. Gripen also seems to have a lower IR signature than the F-35 so if ECM, radar jammers, IRS-T etc is added to the equation it becomes a lot more complicated.

But it's the same old debate, LM and supporters of F-35 claims that stealth is the only relevant feature of a fighter while others Like Boeing, SAAB, etc claims that there are ways to counter stealth. We don't know the right answer yet and for now it does not matter either, F-35, Gripen, Rafales etc is all on the same side.

[GScholz]

A lot of "seems to" in your post there.   But, yeah your right about that last part.