It is a nice looking plane, but yeah. The ball-washing was a bit much.
In contested skies where there are 5th Gen fighters (of which this is not one) planes like the Gripens will be shot down until the 5th gen fighters run out of missiles. (they have to hope that the airspace is uncontested, or that enough planes are left to complete missions, I would guess)
But hey..it is a nice looking plane.