9/9 In conclusion, I believe this is good news even if operational capability is years away, and may well happen after the fighting has ended. In most realistic scenarios, Ukraine will require a strong air force to deter Russia for the foreseeable future.

8/9 As these will be new builds, they will have an expected service life probably beyond the 2060s. Ukraine's legacy Soviet aircraft are more or less beyond any reasonable life expectation - especially during wartime. Donated F-16s and Mirages are not much better off.

7/9 But the Gripen E is also an excellent combat aircraft, with modern sensors, electronic warfare capabilities and weapons that will make it a very dangerous opponent for the Flankers that will remain the backbone of the Russian Air Force for the next decades.

6/9 It is developed from the bottom up for the concept of operations Sweden developed as a front line state during the Cold War. It is made for dispersed operations from austere airfields, for fast turnaround and servicing in the field by reservists.

5/9 The Gripen E is explicitly mentioned as an example of the desired type of combat aircraft, together with F-16 Block 70/72. The Gripen is a very good choice for Ukraine for several reasons.

4/9 In this document, the Ukrainian Air Force suggested replacing all legacy Soviet combat aircraft with a single western Gen4+ type by 2035, with an initial low-rate purchase for training, testing and development purposes finished by 2025.

3/9 In that respect, it is a belated realization of the Ukrainian Air Force's road map from 2020, "Air Force Vision 2035".

2/9 This is a long-term project, not another stop-gap solution to get Ukraine combat aircraft ASAP. Prime Minister Kristersson was talking about a 10-15 year timeframe for completing deliveries and getting the Gripens operationally capable. So an end point around 2035-40

It reminds me of rubber tires on aircraft, painted airplane-shaped silhouettes on the ground, and Russian soldiers treating counter-IR cloaks as magical and ignoring every other principle of camouflage and concealment.

BTW, the camouflage netting in partial lush green contrast to the tan dirt and snugly fitted around a very airplane-shaped thingy in the open is amazing.

The Estonians formulated their doctrine on "little green men" more than 10 years ago: “you should shoot the first one to appear,” Gen Terras said. “If somebody without any military insignia commits terrorist attacks in your country you should shoot him … (..)”
mil.ee/en/news/esto...

forgotten. (Norwegian autocorrect)

I guess it became the normal so fast that it is almost forfoten.