The Gripen E is not the stealthiest fighter jet in the world. It's not the fastest. It doesn't have the biggest radar or the most powerful engine. And yet, in 2025 and 2026, it's one of the most talked-about combat aircraft on the planet. Sweden just received its first production example. Brazil has 12 flying with dozens more on order. Colombia picked it over the F-16. Ukraine signed a letter of intent for up to 150 of them. Something is clearly going on here, and it's worth understanding what.
This post is a ground-up explanation of what the Gripen E actually is, what makes it different from earlier Gripen variants, how it stacks up against its competition, and why so many defence ministries are choosing it despite flashier options being available.
What the Gripen E Is (and Where It Came From)
The Gripen E is Saab's latest evolution of Sweden's indigenous multirole combat aircraft, a program that dates back to the early 1980s. The original Gripen A entered service with the Swedish Air Force in 1996. Over the decades that followed, it was refined into the C and D variants, which went on to serve with air forces in South Africa, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Thailand among others.
The E variant, sometimes called the Gripen NG (Next Generation) in its earlier development phases, is a substantially more capable aircraft than the C/D it builds on. Saab unveiled the first prototype on May 18, 2016, and it completed its maiden flight on June 15, 2017. The first production Gripen E was handed over to the Swedish Air Force's Skaraborg Wing on October 20, 2025, making it a genuinely fresh platform in operational terms.
The Key Upgrades Over the Gripen C
If you've read anything about the Gripen E, you've probably seen it described as a "modernised" Gripen C. That's technically true but a bit misleading about the scale of the changes. The E's fuselage is roughly a meter longer, its wingspan is slightly wider, and its empty weight is over a ton heavier. That extra size enabled Saab to do several things: fit more internal fuel, add two extra hardpoints (going from eight to ten), and accommodate a significantly upgraded avionics and sensor suite.
The older Volvo RM12 engine, a derivative of the General Electric F404, was replaced by the GE F414G. That new engine produces around 22 percent more thrust. Because the airframe is also heavier, the raw performance numbers at the top end (maximum speed is around Mach 2) are roughly comparable to the C, but the real gains show up in combat radius, payload, and the ability to carry a more demanding sensor suite without compromising flight characteristics.
| Feature | Gripen C | Gripen E |
|---|---|---|
| Engine | Volvo RM12 (F404-derivative) | GE F414G (~22% more thrust) |
| Hardpoints | 8 | 10 |
| Radar | PS-05/A pulse-Doppler | Raven ES-05 AESA |
| IRST | No | Skyward-G |
| Max payload capacity | Lower | ~4,409 lbs / ~2,000 kg (more than C) |
| Fuselage length | Shorter | ~3.28 feet / ~1 meter |
| Wide Area Display | No | Yes (sensor fusion cockpit) |
The Sensor Suite: Radar, IRST, and Electronic Warfare
This is where the Gripen E does most of its bragging, and honestly it's justified. The centrepiece of the sensor suite is the Raven ES-05, an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar with a roll-repositionable antenna. That repositionable mount matters more than it might sound: it allows the antenna to physically tilt, expanding the radar's field of regard well beyond what a fixed AESA array could cover. Detection range is reported at approximately 300 km. The Raven also offers high jamming resistance and can interleave air-to-air and air-to-ground modes in the same sweep, which shortens the time between detecting a target and being ready to shoot.
Complementing the Raven is the Skyward-G Infrared Search and Track (IRST) system. Where radar is active (meaning it transmits energy that can potentially be detected by an adversary), IRST is passive. It detects the heat signatures of aircraft and cruise missiles without emitting anything. In practice, this gives the Gripen E's pilot the option to find and track a target while remaining electronically quiet, a capability that has become increasingly important against adversaries with good radar warning receivers.
The Gripen E doesn't just see the battlefield differently. It lets the pilot choose whether to be seen at all.
The electronic warfare suite rounds out the picture. Saab describes it as functioning like an electronic shield, capable of disrupting enemy radar and missile systems. The Gripen E can operate in a "silent" networking mode, sharing targeting data with other aircraft over secure datalinks without broadcasting its own position. In a contested airspace, that's a meaningful edge.
Weapons and Hardpoints
Ten hardpoints gives the Gripen E a lot of flexibility. According to Saab, the aircraft can carry up to eight long-range MBDA Meteor air-to-air missiles alongside two IRIS-T short-range missiles simultaneously. That's a headline number worth pausing on. The Meteor is a beyond-visual-range (BVR) missile with a ramjet motor that sustains speed and energy all the way to intercept, creating a significantly larger "no-escape zone" than older radar-guided missiles. Having eight of them on a single jet is a serious air-to-air capability.
The Gripen E is also compatible with the AIM-120 AMRAAM family, which matters for export customers who are already embedded in NATO logistics chains. On the air-to-ground side, the jet can carry precision-guided munitions, anti-ship missiles, and reconnaissance pods. Mixed loadouts (air-to-air missiles plus ground attack weapons) on the same sortie are supported, which gives operators genuine flexibility during a mission rather than forcing them to choose a role before takeoff.
The Operating Cost Advantage
This is one of the Gripen E's strongest selling points, and it deserves careful treatment because the numbers vary a lot depending on the source. Saab's own figures put the Gripen E's cost per flight hour at around $22,100, compared to $25,600 for the F-16V and over $46,000 for the F-35A, all figures compiled by the publication Defense Express from official estimates. Independent analysts and the Jane's defence consultancy have historically placed the broader Gripen family at the low end of Western fighter operating costs, with the E variant's hourly costs commonly cited somewhere between $22,000 and $36,000 depending on accounting methods, fleet size, and support arrangements.
The caveat is important: operating costs depend heavily on how many aircraft a country operates, what kind of support contract it negotiates, and how intensively the jets are flown. Czech estimates for 24 Gripen E/Fs put the per-flight-hour cost closer to $36,200. The gap between Saab's marketing figures and what a real operator might pay is real. Even so, the consensus across analysts is that the Gripen E is consistently cheaper to operate than the Rafale, the Eurofighter, and the F-35. For countries with limited defence budgets who want a capable, modern jet, that lifecycle arithmetic matters enormously.
If you're researching the Gripen E for a defence procurement context or a comparative analysis, our breakdown of fourth-generation fighter lifecycle costs goes deeper on this topic with country-specific data.
Dispersed Basing: The Tactical Philosophy Behind the Jet
Understanding the Gripen E fully requires understanding the Swedish military doctrine it was designed around. Sweden's Bas 90 system disperses aircraft across multiple small, hardened sites rather than concentrating them at a few large airbases. This is a direct lesson from the 1967 Six-Day War, where the Israeli Air Force destroyed virtually the entire Egyptian fleet on the ground by targeting a small number of concentrated airfields. The Swedish answer was: don't give an adversary a concentrated target.
The Gripen E is specifically designed to support this doctrine. It can operate from short road strips and be turned around quickly by a small ground crew, meaning it doesn't need a long prepared runway or a large maintenance team at each dispersed location. That's unusual for a modern multirole fighter. In June 2025, Saab was still conducting operational trials from narrow airstrips, refining this capability further. For countries facing the kind of threats where large airfields might be struck early in a conflict, this operational model is genuinely appealing.
AI and Software: Why the Avionics Architecture Matters
In May 2025, a Gripen E flew a series of real-world sorties with an AI agent called "Centaur" embedded in its mission systems. Centaur, a collaboration between Saab and German AI company Helsing, flew beyond-visual-range combat engagements, recommended missile shots, and evaded disadvantageous flight paths, all outside of a simulator and in operational conditions. This marked the first time an AI agent had flown an operational frontline fighter jet in BVR conditions in a non-simulated environment.
What made this possible is the Gripen E's open-architecture software system. Saab built the avionics so that mission systems are separated from flight-critical software. This means new software applications and capabilities can be added, updated, or modified without requiring recertification of the entire aircraft. In practice, Saab says updates can be made within hours. That's a very different model from fighters where hardware and software are tightly coupled and a capability update might take years to certify and field. For air forces that need to adapt quickly to new threats, this architecture is a significant operational advantage.
The Gripen E's real innovation isn't a single sensor or missile. It's an aircraft that's designed to be a different jet next year than it is today.
Who's Buying It and Why
As of 2026, the confirmed Gripen E/F orderbook looks like this: Sweden has 60 on order, Brazil 36 (with 12 already flying), Colombia 17 (signed in April 2025), and Thailand 4. Beyond that, in October 2025, Sweden and Ukraine signed a letter of intent for Ukraine to acquire up to 150 Gripen Es, which would be by far the largest single order in the programme's history if it proceeds.
The reasons each country chose the Gripen E vary. For Sweden, it's their own platform, so that's straightforward. For Brazil, Saab opened a production line with Embraer, creating industrial offsets and local manufacturing capacity that made the deal attractive politically and economically. Colombia rejected the F-16 in favour of the Gripen E partly because of geopolitical considerations (reducing dependence on US military systems) and partly because of the lifecycle cost argument. Thailand selected it over the F-16 Block 70/72 in August 2024 and placed an order in August 2025. In each case, the combination of affordable operating costs, modern sensors, and the flexibility of road-basing capabilities appears to have tipped the balance.
The Honest Limitations
No aircraft review is worth reading if it only covers the positives. The Gripen E has real limitations. It's a single-engine aircraft, which some air forces view as a disadvantage for long overwater flights or operations far from friendly territory. A single engine failure over open ocean is a very different situation from a twin-engine failure where one might keep you flying. Countries with significant maritime patrol requirements or large oceanic areas to cover tend to prefer twin-engine designs.
The Gripen E is also not a stealth aircraft. It doesn't have the low radar cross-section of the F-35, and in an environment where advanced Russian or Chinese air defence systems are operating at full capability, that matters. The electronic warfare suite is designed to partially compensate for this, but it's a mitigation rather than an equivalence. If your primary threat environment involves advanced, modern integrated air defence systems, the Gripen E is a harder sell than a stealth platform, even accounting for the cost difference.
Finally, the sales numbers, while growing, are still relatively modest compared to platforms like the F-16, which has been ordered by over 25 countries and produced in the thousands. Smaller fleets mean less shared experience, fewer third-party maintenance options, and potentially higher costs for spare parts and specialist support over time.
Final Thoughts
The Gripen E isn't trying to be the F-35. It's not competing on stealth or on sheer sensor-processing power. What it offers is a modern, capable multirole fighter with a sensor suite that genuinely competes with anything in the 4.5-generation bracket, an operating cost that most defence budgets can actually sustain, and an operational doctrine (dispersed basing, rapid updates, AI-ready software) that maps well onto the kinds of threats smaller air forces are most likely to face. That combination is why the orderbook keeps growing even as bigger, more expensive jets get most of the attention.
If you're doing serious research on the Gripen E, I'd recommend reading Saab's own technical briefs alongside independent assessments from Jane's and Army Recognition, which tend to be more measured than either the manufacturer's marketing or the enthusiast commentary. The truth about what this aircraft can and can't do sits in the middle, and it's a genuinely interesting story once you dig into it. If you found this useful, the related post on fourth-generation versus fifth-generation fighter tradeoffs covers a lot of the same territory from a different angle.
