Gripen test fires Meteor missile
 

http://www.gripen.com/en/MediaRelati...620_meteor.htm

With a 100+km range, it should combine the range of a Phoenix with the flexibility of an AMRAAM. Nice bit of kit.

Easier to bring back than an AIM54, just hope the max range energy is a bit better. Shame it'll not fit in the weaps bays of the Dave.

doesn't matter if it fits or not, no one is willing to pay for its integration

RonO, I am hearing that the Meteor is plug and play compatible with the AMRAAM in the same way that the ASRAAM is with the AIM9.

Another boost to my argument that we should have purchased Gripen. I saw the EFA prototype stooging at Warton in '89, seventeen years later and... we could have had several Gripen squadrons operational by now! :mad:

Got to pay for ASRAAM as well although according to NAO a princely £49m was saved by not having Lockheed qualify either ASRAAM or Brimstone for external carriage. No doubt in expectation of a lower quote from Bae :)

Whilst trawling idly through the Gripen website, I notice the above. Oh for heavens sake, that's nearly ten years ago and even ETPS are flying them!

That was a pre-contract observer flight some six years before first landed here.

Green - lovely aeroplane but no legs. Rather have the Typhoo.

This follows the first test firing ont he 9th of may, which interestingly was not mentioned widely, however there appeared to be a slight glitch with that firing.

"MBDA’s Meteor Multinational Project Director, Dave Armstrong, said: “These live missile air launches represent a huge achievement as they represent the earliest ever flights of a new missile with solid fuel ramjet technology and have been completed in just over three years from contract let. A minor glitch was observed during the first missile firing with the missile failing to transition to the sustain phase of flight and therefore continuing over the pre-determined flight time under boost impulse, gradually decelerating through the flight. The source of this failure was quickly identified and a modification made which was subsequently proven during the second firing with the missile successfully transitioning from the boost to the sustain phase of flight and completing a series of post-transition manoeuvres”."

Soooo good in fact that Swedish Air Force has just cancelled a 100 of 'em.
It is the Matalan of fighters

Not quite
 

Well actually no. Sweden's Supreme Commander has proposed that the air force cuts its Gripen fleet back to about 100 aircraft for budget reasons.

The actual number of 'surplus' jets and the final force size has not yet been agreed. Plus all of the 100 or so aircraft that do end up in front-line service will be full-spec JAS 39C/Ds.

Saab's contract for 204 aircraft is unaffected. They will be built - and a whole bunch will be upgraded. It's then up the the SAF and FMV to decide what they want to do with the extras.

Matalan you reckon?

Anyone who would rather go to war today (or tomorrow) in a Eurofighter instead of a Gripen needs taking back to the home for a nice cup of tea and a sit down.

VC

'They will be built - and a whole bunch will be upgraded. It's then up the the SAF and FMV to decide what they want to do with the extras'.

EXTRAS! These aren't donuts were talking about here. Well....actually they are...sorry.

Boogey
The Matalan of fighters? Hardly. Typhoon is a classic case of design by committee and effective decisions by none. Having read in some detail the process by which the beloved Tonka came about, and that it was bandied about that 'no longer will Britain be able to to afford to develop it's own aircraft', along comes a much smaller nation and successfully develops and exports the only full squadron-service fourth-generation fighter. We would have done far better if we had emulated that with Typhoon.
I hardly need to remind the detractors who list the Gripen's glitches of the troubles that Tornado went through and the staggering list of problems and frankly appalling length of development time that Typhoon has gone through.
OCWMMF - seem to remember we have had quite a few of those before! I do freely admit that Typhoon has some capabilities that Gripen is lacking - the extra engine and legs being two! - but overall, the Gripen would have been a far better bet.
Donuts the extras are not, they are extremely capable aircraft! You never know, there could be a case for interim leasing whilst Typhoon continues to languish.
Perhaps we should call the Typhoon the Marks and Spencers of fighters;rather a nice idea, full of interesting looking things (sometimes!), some well-made kit, but, losing considerable amounts of money, can't decide which way to focus and not perhaps a good a deal as it once seemd.:hmm:

Norway is being offered longer range Gripens. More internal fuel plus bigger external tanks.

So OCWMMF, how about a Gripen with longer legs?