Ukraine is finally going to get Gripen fighters built for a Russia fight, but new jets come with new challenges

• Ukraine is purchasing Gripens, jets long seen as ideal for its war with Russia.

• The aircraft fits Ukraine’s challenge, but the addition of another jet type brings new payloads.

• The deal could help Ukraine now and deepen its long-term ties with the West.

Ukraine will be Gripen warplanes are being deliveredIt is considered very suitable for the fight against Russia. This is a development that brings with it both complications in the short term and advantages in the long term.

of Ukraine air force created Western-supplied F-16s, French-made Mirages and Soviet-era jets. But made in Sweden Gripen came to the fore A strong fit for Ukraine’s challenge: It was designed to stay mobile, operate on challenging airstrips, require less maintenance than some other fighter jets, and survive the kind of threat posed by Russia.

Swedish defense company Saab recently announced that Ukraine will receive 16 advanced Gripen E jets in a deal worth approximately $2.54 billion. Deliveries are expected to begin in early 2029; However, Sweden plans to send 16 old Gripen C/D fighter jets to Ukraine at the beginning of next year.

Swedish defense minister Pål Jonson called the deal “the first step in Ukraine’s goal to purchase up to 150 Gripen E/F aircraft over time.”

Tim Robinson, a military aviation expert at the United Kingdom’s Royal Aeronautical Society, told Business Insider that the jets not only compensate for losses but also serve Ukraine’s war needs.

He explained that these aircraft were “designed around tough, agile and dispersed operations and rapid turnaround times” and that this was “exactly the kind of doctrine that Ukraine has successfully adopted for its air force to survive and respond.”

What does this design fit into? Ukraine had to fight: Keeping its aircraft dispersed, moving between bases and avoiding stationary targets that Russia can more easily hit.

Gripen was developed with Russia’s Sukhoi fighters in mind at the end of the Cold War. Air bases and runways are targeted For operations that deviate from traditional practices, such as takeoff and takeoff, aircraft must be dispersed. landing on civilian roads.

An advanced fourth-generation aircraft, the Gripen E is the most modern variant and a major upgrade over the C/D. It was introduced to Sweden’s own air force late last year.

ukrainian warrior the pilot said last year He said the Gripen was the only jet “for which I was willing to sell my soul.” The “ideal option” for Ukraine.

Michael Bohnert, a combat expert at the RAND Corporation, previously told Business Insider that the “Gripens are a much better fit for Ukraine than the F-16” because they are “a little more purpose-built” for what Ukraine needs. Sweden “under threat from Russia designed the Gripens to fight in ways that F-16s are not.”

But while the introduction of a new jet type creates opportunities, it also creates new challenges. Training and integration of different types of jets is difficult; like managing a series of jets with very different parts and logistics chains, air base needs and maintenance requirements.

Mark Cancian, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Business Insider that with so many types of jets, “the practical problem is that there are parts maintenance and repair facilities for many different types of aircraft. They all need different types of parts. They need different training for their mechanics.”

It also “requires maintenance facilities with all the special tools and special knowledge for a particular type of aircraft. So operating more than one type of aircraft is very inefficient. Now in wartime you accept inefficiency, but in peacetime you want to be more efficient, and reducing the number of types is one way to do that.”

Robinson likewise said that “introducing a brand new combat platform in small numbers can always be difficult.” However, he added, “the Gripen’s low support area and ease of maintenance should probably make this easier than other complex or challenging fighter types.”

Still, this was a point of concern.

Then-Swedish foreign minister Tobias Billström said in 2024 that Ukraine had paused efforts to acquire the Gripen because it “concluded that bringing two air fighter systems (both F-16 and Gripens) on board at the same time would be too much.”

“It’s not just a question about receiving airplanes and training pilots,” he said, pointing out that “these are complicated systems, and to have two of them at the same time being implemented was too much.”

After receiving F-16s, Ukrainian air forces later French captured Mirage fightersIt led Sweden to delay offering its fighter jets to Ukraine in response to instructions from the Allies.

Ukraine, which has been flying F-16s since August 2024, is now further ahead and Put its Mirages into service additionally. Ukrainian pilots have also been training on Gripen in Sweden since 2023.

And the benefits outweigh the challenges. Ukraine wants to bring its army as close to the West as possible and we have become a part of the defense ecosystem. Even if the current war ends, there is a risk of further aggression by Russia.

Diversifying arms suppliers also “gives Kiev strategic resilience in the event of geopolitical changes that restrict the use of aircraft or the supply of spare parts,” Robinson said.

A more diverse fighter fleet might be more difficult to manage, but it would also make Ukraine less dependent on any one partner.

Cancian said Ukraine may also see value in having multiple suppliers. Relying solely on F-16s would leave Kiev dependent on Washington, while an all-Gripen fleet would make it dependent on Stockholm.

For Ukraine, the Gripen deal is not just about adding another fighter. It’s about building an air force with more options, more suppliers and deeper ties to Western militaries that Kiev expects to rely on long after this war is over.

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