Gripen is more comparable to the US F-18 in speed, range & unit cost, but the F-18 carries 1/3 greater payload.
Also, it appears that our good Swedish friends are more willing to make hardball deals than our guys.
But all this is not recent events.
Czech Republic has used Gripens since the 1990s.
We are talking about 14 airplanes here.
Now Slovakia is joining them, to buy a few more.
Czech Republic has operated Gripens since 2004.
Hungary ordered it’s first Gripens in 2001.
Now Slovakia has joined them.
In total, we are talking about roughly 40 aircraft.