The Swedish ambassador to Czech Republic Fredrik Jörgensen mentioned in an interview with Seznam Správy that Czech can maintain the Saab 39 Gripen fighters that it leased from Sweden without spending a dime. The information comes as Czech is trying into shopping for 24 fighters because the lease for the Gripens will expire in 2027. In keeping with the information report, the F-35 is the main contender. In 2014, the governments of the Czech Republic and Sweden had signed a brand new settlement to increase the NATO nation’s lease deal for 14 Gripen C/Ds by an extra 12 years. In 2015, the service determined to improve its fleet to the MS20 configuration. The MS20 improve was accomplished in 2018.
When the Czech Republic grew to become a NATO member in 1999, they wanted to switch their current Soviet-built MiG-21 fleet with plane suitable with NATO requirements. In 2000, the Czech Republic started evaluating plenty of plane, together with the F-16, F/A-18, Mirage 2000, Eurofighter Storm and the Gripen. In December 2001, having reportedly been swayed by Gripen Worldwide’s beneficiant financing and offset programme, the Czech authorities introduced that the Saab 39 Gripen fighter had been chosen. On 14 June 2004, it was introduced that the Czech Republic was to lease 14 Gripens, modified to adjust to NATO requirements.
Commercial
The primary six have been delivered on 18 April 2005. The lease was for an agreed interval of 10 years at a price of €780 million; the 14 ex-Swedish Air Drive plane included 12 single-seaters and two JAS 39D two-seat trainers. In September 2013, the Defence and Safety Export Company introduced {that a} follow-up settlement with the Czech Republic had been accomplished to increase the lease by 14 years, till 2029; leased plane shall additionally bear in depth modernization, together with the adoption of latest datalinks. The lease additionally has an possibility of finally buying the fighters outright.
The Saab JAS 39 Gripen is a lightweight single-engine multirole fighter plane manufactured by the Swedish aerospace and protection firm Saab AB. The Gripen has a delta wing and canard configuration with relaxed stability design and fly-by-wire flight controls. The Gripen has good brief takeoff efficiency, having the ability to preserve a excessive sink price and strengthened to face up to the stresses of brief landings. The Gripen is suitable with plenty of completely different armaments, past the plane’s single 27 mm Mauser BK-27 cannon, together with air-to-air missiles such because the AIM-9 Sidewinder, air-to-ground missiles such because the AGM-65 Maverick, and anti-ship missiles such because the RBS-15.
