President Volodymyr Zelenskyy explained that Gripen fighter jets are among the most useful for Ukraine due to their low cost, lower maintenance needs, and ease of mastery by pilots. These aircraft are also convenient for using a wide range of weapons that Ukraine uses.
Gripen fighters are among the most useful for Ukraine, as they are cheap and require fewer people to maintain. It will be easier for Ukrainian pilots to learn how to fly them, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a briefing, UNN reports.
Details
Gripen, for example, is one of the favorites. The maintenance of this fighter is the cheapest, because the smallest number of people must be involved. For our pilot with a specialty and experience, it is not a year and a half of training, as, for example, we had with the F-16, but 6 months. All flight and landing technical capabilities of the Gripen are also beneficial, they can take off and land on highways
– Zelenskyy explained the advantages of Swedish fighters.
In addition, according to the head of state, it is important that Gripen fighters are convenient in terms of weapon use.
When we didn't have F-16s yet, we already started to find tools to use Western weapons on our Ukrainian Soviet-made aircraft. It took us months, we couldn't use the available missiles because there were no such suspensions. And it was difficult. But our engineers worked together with engineers from those countries whose weapons were developed for us. So, regarding Gripen, everything can be attached to it. Probably almost everything that Ukraine uses – missiles and other weapons – can be attached there
– Zelenskyy emphasized.
The head of state also added that as of today, Ukraine needs three types of fighters: F-16, Gripen, and Rafale.
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Therefore, we chose three parallel platforms: F-16, Gripen, and Rafale – a modern French aircraft, its attractiveness at that time was that I only needed to negotiate with France. This is important. The difficulty was that there was also a high demand for Rafale in the world and, accordingly, queues for production and delivery
– Zelenskyy summarized.
Recall
President Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine expects the supply of 150 JAS 39 Gripen aircraft, as they are not part of Ukraine's security guarantees.
Together with Sweden, Ukraine will significantly increase its combat aviation. This is an ambitious task, it must be completed. This is truly a historic step. The agreement with Sweden on Gripen combat aircraft is a good choice. A strong aviation platform and well suited for Ukrainian conditions
– Zelenskyy explained.
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