JAS-39 Gripen upgrades

[Xealot]

Hello everyone!

 

Just thought i would share this with you, I spotted this on a swedish news site:

http://www.e24.se/dynamiskt/verkstadsindustri/did_15135632.asp

 

 

The government says Yes to developing a new generation of Jas 39 Gripen and modernising our old planes

 

The Super-Jas, or E/F-version of the Jas Gripen is planned to have a stronger engine, better radar, bigger fuel tanks, longer range and larger storage capacity, more weapons and more variated weapons load

 

The article mentions that the new engines will have 30 percent better drag force (? sorry, my english isnt all that good), stronger wings and new electronics and aerial refueling capability

 

 

 

This isnt a very technical article but atleast its something :thumbup:

[christopher m]

Grippen

 

Xealot,

 

The Gripen is a beautiful bird, thanks for the article.

 

Even though I couldn't read it.

 

My Swedish is worse than your english for sure !

 

Although I am an American of Swedish decent.

 

I am from Minnesota in USA and thats where all the Swedes went when they

 

came to America, anyway I am GENETICLY predispositioned to really like

 

Swedish stuff (Volvo, Gripen, fish) so thanks for your post.

 

Best Regards,

[3Sqn_Fudd]

A Super Gripen ... sweet...

 

I really like that bird, tailor made for Sweden by Sweden...

 

And yeh... Minnesota is Scandinavia-West

[BlitZ_SWE]

Thats great!! Thanks for the article.

 

According to the article, 31 of the A/B versions of the Gripen will be upgraded to C/D standard. During the uppgrade and the development of the Super-Gripen they will sell off the 70 A/B versions to other countries or demolish them. This upgrade of the Gripen and the development of the new one will prolong the lifespan of the Gripen to 2020-2040.

 

over and out =)

/Christian

[Pilotasso]

Hope we dont end up harbouring those old A/B's lol we did the same for a batch of 25 ANG block 15 f-16's.

[Teknetinium]

good reading thx for the article, Cant wait to see super gripen..

[Force_Feedback]

A gripen is better than C falcon, so that's something.

[Pilotasso]

Im curious, what is you definition of "better"?

[Pilotasso]

Indian LCA is newer than F-22 OMFG we are doomed!

[Force_Feedback]

B.15 F-16s are crap, and everything under block 60 is inferior to the Gripen-A/B avionics wise. It also has better turnrates, only downside is the weak engine.

[Pilotasso]

Biased views appart of course! :D

[Force_Feedback]

Biased views appart of course! :D

 

Because my country also has F-16s, but those ARE properly modernised? Yes, very biased then, MLU are the shit bro, no denying that, no damn block 15 with LED displays can beat that.

[Pilotasso]

Blovk 15's are just old. But I get the sensation that you underestimate F-16's in all models, I got some of you coments before giving me that impression. Like "mirage 2000's flying in circles arround it".

[Teknetinium]

when do u people learn that its about pilots and teamwork, U cant say F-16 is better then Jas-39 or F-15 better then su-27, Butt I would rather sitt in Jas-39 then f-16 or f-15 S!!! :)

[Force_Feedback]

Dude, the Jas-39A was the first 4th (5th for Russian designation) generation electronics equipped light multirole fighter. Kind of like the Mig-35, but with CRT screens and a slightly worse radar. But datalink-wise, SA enhancements, all the shebang was already on it.

[CoNa]

One less Gripen to upgrade......:(

 

Sorry, It's in swedish of course

http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,1049839,00.html

 

Pilot ejected safely before landing. (birdstrike perhaps).

 

Well if we are going to scrap the ones that cannot be sold, this is one way of doing it :smilewink:

[Pilotasso]

Dude, the Jas-39A was the first 4th (5th for Russian designation) generation electronics equipped light multirole fighter. Kind of like the Mig-35, but with CRT screens and a slightly worse radar. But datalink-wise, SA enhancements, all the shebang was already on it.

 

 

WHere your getting the data that Gripens radar is worse than the 35's?

[ViperEagle]

Block 15 Vipers may be old avionics wise, and systems wise, but they are one thing...

 

Sierra Hotel turn and burn wise..light and fast. Obsessions with avionics and technology can be dangerous..F-4 pilots learned that while being gunned by MiG-21 and 17's.

 

Anyone who disregards the Jas-39 is a fool, as are anyone who does the same with the Viper. I'd actually par a Block 50/52 Viper with a JAS-39C.

[Pilotasso]

Block 15 Vipers may be old avionics wise, and systems wise, but they are one thing...

 

Sierra Hotel turn and burn wise..light and fast. Obsessions with avionics and technology can be dangerous..F-4 pilots learned that while being gunned by MiG-21 and 17's.

 

Anyone who disregards the Jas-39 is a fool, as are anyone who does the same with the Viper. I'd actually par a Block 50/52 Viper with a JAS-39C.

 

F-4's had too many limitations on their avionics, further more they were made to intercept high fliers not migs in a doctrinal enviroment that didnt correspond to the reality with expectations put on it way ahead of what its technology could actualy do, not exactly that the pilots were cocky. The migs were unmatched.

 

JAS-39 doesnt deserve to be looked at as the small kid on the block. with AMRAAM its deadly, with Meteor there will be many fighters in the "premier league" that will be simply outgunned and without nothing to match in return.

[mvsgas]

I was looking the the Gripen photos posted here:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=716580&postcount=1004

I did not want to start a new thread on this, I figure is related to this conversation.

 

I was wandering:

How small is the engine on the Gripen?

Is the same engine used on the F-18C (Made by Volvo and with different designation=RM12), correct?

So the modernize Gripen (Gripen NG) will use the F414G?

 

That aircraft looks so tiny still, I can't believe it carries as much weight as it does.

Acceleration of this aircraft must be so slow (Original Gripen, A to D). I am not talking about the top speed, I'm referring to the time it take to get to top speed. Fully loaded this speed must go down considerably. I wander how much the new engine will improve this.

 

The reason I say this is because you always hear how the acceleration of the F-18 is considerably slower than that of the F-16. Because of this, I wander if the same can be said about the Gripen with the same engine. I'm not saying which aircraft is better, just merely commenting on acceleration and it relation to the engines. (RM12/F404 compared to F414G)

Edited July 13, 2009 by mvsgas

[Boulund]

I just want to start off by telling that I know nothing about much of the things you are discussing here and have basicly only read the information available here and on wikipedia. None the less if you look at the thrust and weight-figures and calculate some thrust/weight-ratio on the planes F-18, F-16, JAS 39 Gripen you get the following:

 

F-18 Thrust/Weight (kN/Mg)

3,385

 

F-16 Thrust/Weight (kN/Mg)

6,714

 

JAS 39 Gripen CURRENT Thrust/Weight (kN/Mg)

5,75

 

JAS 39 Gripen "SUPER, or E/F version" Thrust/Weight (kN/Mg)

7,475 (30% more thrust)

 

 

Obviosly the Gripen is a much smaller plane and can't carry as much as the two others, but the acceleration of the Gripen currently should be somewhere between that of a F-18 and a F-16, and after the new "Super Gripens" arrive it's not possible that it will outclass them accelerationwise. Just me thinking out loud... (with a nice patriotism and strong bias towards the beautiful swedish Gripens ;))

 

 

edit: sorry about not giving away the conditions for my very light calculations. I just took the maxiumum takeoff weight for each aircraft.

Edited July 14, 2009 by Boulund

[PE_Tigar]

You're talking T/W in which conditions - AA/AG loadout?, full fuel/no weapons? Because, obviously, if you have a much lighter a/c, its t/w will go down much more steeply with any loadout. From what I heard from actual Gripen pilots:

 

- vs. Luftwaffe Phantoms it was not even funny

 

- vs. Rafale - good in turn, can't keep up in the vertical

 

Otherwise, much praise for the bird, it has many other good sides to it that can't be evaluated by performance figures only, like simplified maintenance, great level of autonomy, able to operate from improvised strips etc...

[Boulund]

You're talking T/W in which conditions - AA/AG loadout?, full fuel/no weapons? Because, obviously, if you have a much lighter a/c, its t/w will go down much more steeply with any loadout. From what I heard from actual Gripen pilots:

 

- vs. Luftwaffe Phantoms it was not even funny

 

- vs. Rafale - good in turn, can't keep up in the vertical

 

Otherwise, much praise for the bird, it has many other good sides to it that can't be evaluated by performance figures only, like simplified maintenance, great level of autonomy, able to operate from improvised strips etc...

 

Sorry for not stating what I based my calculations on, I made an edit to my previous post about it. It's calculated on maximum takeoff load anyway. Not the best measure but it gives an idea of engine power vs weight (I figured it would show off the Gripen in a good way as well =)).

 

Of course all aircraft are not the same and comparisons based upon just performance isn't all. Just like everyone says it's a mixture of maintenance, cost, flexibility and other factors as well. But being good looking is a strong selling point I'd say :D