Although Ukrainian Air Force personnel will thoroughly evaluate the Saab Gripen fighter, Sweden does not plan to transfer any aircraft to them for the time being, as it needs them for its own defense.
Volodymir Zelensky is making an express tour of different European countries to get more military support, in order to increase his chances of victory over the Kremlin troops, and the results have been very positive. Undoubtedly the greatest success of his trip is that Denmark and the Netherlands promised to transfer 61 F-16 fighters to Ukraine. But he also obtained important commitments in Stockholm, among which is the ratification of the promise made by the Swedish Minister of Defense in May, regarding the possibility for the Ukrainian Air Force to examine first hand the capabilities of the Saab Gripen, Sweden’s main fighter aircraft.
Ten outcomes of our talks with @SwedishPM Ulf Kristersson.
1. We agreed to work on the joint production of CV-90s armoured vehicles in Ukraine.
2. Ukrainian warriors began training to operate Swedish “Archers”.
3. Ukrainian pilots are already taking part in testing “Gripen”… pic.twitter.com/niPSOke4OG
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 19, 2023
Sweden has no Gripen surplus
However, the Swedish government does not plan, for the moment, to cede some of its fighters to Ukraine, as they have no surplus aircraft and all available units are in active service. The Swedish Air Force (Svenska Flygvapnet) currently deploys about 70 Gripen C – single-seat fighters – and 23 Gripen D – twin-seat fighters – which will fly until 2035 and will be supplemented in the future by 60 new Gripen E, ordered from SAAB.
On the prospect of transferring some Gripen fighters to Ukraine, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson stated in an interview for the Swedish TV4 program that, » We are not in that situation. We will do our best to support them with aircraft, but right now there are no new commitments to provide Swedish aircraft to Ukraine.»
Likewise, Kristersson remarked that Sweden is part of the F-16 coalition, made up of 14 countries seeking to provide Ukraine with this fighter (present in large numbers European military surpluses), therefore it would be acting in close collaboration with the other Kiev allies and the Swedish impossibility to cede its Gripen does not prevent in the short term the Ukrainian Air Force from equipping itself with Western fourth-generation fighters.
Finally, the Prime Minister clarified that Sweden is not yet part of NATO, and therefore has to take care of its own security, as it is not yet protected by Article 5. This situation will change sooner rather than later, so the eventual transfer of some of Sweden’s fighters to Ukrainian hands should not be ruled out.
See also: Think tank suggests transferring Gripen fighters to Ukraine as soon as possible
Gripens alternative sources
Other possible sources of Swedish fighter supplies are the Czech Republic and Hungary, which each have 14 JAS-39 Gripen C/Ds leased from Sweden. But these aircraft form the backbone of their respective air defenses and could only be made available to Ukraine if NATO were to guarantee the integrity of Czech and Hungarian airspace by deploying allied fighter aircraft to perform air policing missions, similar to the Baltic Air Surveillance mission.
