this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2024
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Gripen is designed to be easy to maintain and use roads as runways, which makes it better for Ukraine then F16. However the production line is not as strong and most users will not send theirs to Ukraine. The only NATO users are Sweden, Czechia and Hungary. Hungary is not going to send any and Czechia has 14 leased ones. So only Sweden might actually be able to spare some.
No, that's not it.
Sweden can't afford to fund an aid package including them itself, and the US would never spend money on financing a competitor to their own craft.
Which is a tragedy because it's basically the perfect platform for them.
The Brazilian Gripens were $86million per plane. Sweden just gave Ukraine a $400million military aid package. They are also an EU member and that allows them to use EU military funds for EU made weapons. So you probably could get 10planes or so going to Ukraine.
Obviously weapons matter as well, but those are not Swedish made, but German and American. No reason the US can not finance some Sidewinders for Ukraine for example.