The Swedish government will instruct the country's military to investigate the possibility of sending Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine, the Swedish Radio's news service Ekot reported on Sept. 12.
They basically started designing a jet 50 years ago
This became the Viggen (development actually started over 60 years ago), with some help from the US, especially for the engine, which is basically a P&W JT8D with afterburner. Still a very impressive STOL-capable Mach-2 fighter jet, one of the very few with thrust reversers.
The Gripen is the 4th-gen successor, with much of the original design parameters retained, but with modern “relaxed stability”-aerodynamics for higher agility, and digital avionics.
This became the Viggen (development actually started over 60 years ago), with some help from the US, especially for the engine, which is basically a P&W JT8D with afterburner. Still a very impressive STOL-capable Mach-2 fighter jet, one of the very few with thrust reversers.
The Gripen is the 4th-gen successor, with much of the original design parameters retained, but with modern “relaxed stability”-aerodynamics for higher agility, and digital avionics.