SAAB Gripen and Gripen NG thread #4

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24 years 2 months

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Fly there? It's not like the Gripen can't cross the Atlantic...

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15 years 8 months

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Fly there? It's not like the Gripen can't cross the Atlantic...

Well I agree it can fly across the Atlantic (quoted ferry range of 4000Km) but it can't do Sweden-Brazil without refuelling, so I wondered what route it would take.

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The first F-39 will perform flight tests in Sweden until the end of 2020, then continue flight tests in Brazil.
If I had to guess, I'd say AAR certification of the E model will be part of the flight tests before going to Brazil.
Probably still going to include 1 or 2 stops... maybe Gando air base (Gran Canaria/Spain).

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Member for

8 years 6 months

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Does it really need to fly all the way ? Why can't just ship it or load it into some AN-124's ?

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6 years 10 months

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Does it really need to fly all the way ? Why can't just ship it or load it into some AN-124's ?

Sounds like a lot of work compared to just flying it it there. Gripens take part in Red Flag so it's not unusual for them to cross the atlantic.

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15 years 8 months

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Sounds like a lot of work compared to just flying it it there. Gripens take part in Red Flag so it's not unusual for them to cross the atlantic.

Does USAF refuel them mid-Atlantic because they are attending an exercise in USA or do they go via (I guess) Iceland?

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Even with air to air refuelling, they had a few stops along the way:

This year's exercise provided the first opportunity for Gripens to use tankers during Red Flag, and was also the first time the Swedish aircraft had deployed to and from the USA with air-to-air refuelling support, in the form of two USAF KC-10s. This meant the number of required and planned stops could be reduced from six or seven landings used on earlier deployments, to only three.

That was in 2013, and they stopped at Lajes. In earlier Red Flags, AAR wasn't possible and they needed six or seven stops. From here.

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Saab Presents First Gripen E to Brazil

https://www.defense-aerospace.com/article-view/release/205769/saab-hands-over-first-production-gripen-e-fighter-to-brazil.html

I wonder how it will get to Brazil. Sweden is a long way from Brazil.

The distance from the Kap Verde Islands to Brazil is 2700 km.

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