LeafGm
Well-known member
For those of us who don't want any part in fulfilling the rest of the F-35 contract, Saab has chosen a replacement engine for the Gripen E that is immune from ITAR requirements. They've picked the Rolls Royce EJ230 (an updated version of the EJ200 that's in the eurofighter). It was the runner up initially when Sweden went looking for engines for the C block upgrades. The EJ230 is more powerful and has thrust vectoring, but was more expensive than the GE engine they went with.
The new engines are available more or less off the shelf from Rolls Royce, and they also allow foreign licensing and construction so I would expect us to go that way if we pick the Gripen.
This is probably a no brainer decision tbh. The Rafale and the Eurofighter are fantastic 4-4.5th gen aircraft but way more expensive than the Gripen for not a lot (if any) additional capability that we need. As a bridge to a 6th gen fleet in 20+ years, this is probably the way and Saab + Rolls Royce both allow foreign construction under license so it would be an immediate big win for Carney to buy 80-100 Gripen's and announce it's all being built here.
Portugal just announced the flip from the F-35's a few weeks ago as well
Portugal’s bold pivot to Gripen shocks F-35 backers in NATO
Portugal in talks for Gripen to replace F-16s, eyeing cost-effective NATO upgrade. Explore why this shift could reshape European defense and challenge F-35.bulgarianmilitary.com
100 would cost about 4 billion USD and is the cheapest to maintain of anything we would consider buying, probably by a lot.
Would be completely fine with reducing the F-35 order down to only the 16 we’ve already paid for, then going with these for the remainder of our fighter fleet.
