Seventh Gripen fighter plane arrives at C Hungary air base
Budapest, December 19 (MTI) – The seventh Gripen jet fighter out of 14 that Hungary is leasing from Sweden, landed at the Kecskemet military airbase, C Hungary, on Tuesday, the Swedish Defence Procurement Office (FMV) told MTI.
The first five Gripens arrived at Kecskemet in March and the sixth in October. Deliveries for 2006 are fulfilled, director of FMV’s Hungarian Gripen programme Mats Hansson said.
Hungary will receive the last seven of the upgraded NATO-compatible jets by December 2007 under a ten-year lease agreement concluded with the Swedish-British manufacturer Gripen International in 2001. The fighters will be owned by Hungary afterwards.
The 12 single-seat and two double-seat Gripen JAS-39 fighter planes, capable of mid-air refueling, are outfitted with laser-guided missile systems and an on-board oxygen generating system.
The total cost of the deal will come to about 210 billion forints (EUR 798m) by 2016, including 122 billion forints (EUR 463m) to lease the fighters, about 20 billion forints (EUR 76m) in interest on loans and about 68 billion forints (EUR 258m ) for logistics support.
http://english.mti.hu/default.asp?menu=1&theme=2&cat=25&newsid=232264
Note: This was a 39C jet, flown by a SwAF pilot the flight took off from Linkoping, Sweden and lasted 2 hours.
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December 19, 2006 at 6:38 pm