When you claim a threat there, you have to name it. I can not see Russia to attack a NATO-member like Norway any more.
Russia is the only potential threat we have, but you fail to see the moast important thing in peacetime. Norway has huge teritorial waters to protect and control.
The area is ritch in fish and oil. This means that at any time there are a good number of ships around. Some of them are fishing illegaly, and needs the threat of being photographed. Others go down and you need a fast, longlegged plane for spotting.
There are are a number of survivor reprts that says that even if the F-16 was unable to do anything, having one cicling above made a world of difference. They knew that they were spotted and help was on its way !
As for the opinion that developing the Gripen is useless, i have no respect. Giving the plane better range, power and warload is the traditional way to go, and the Gripen has great development potential. The plane was after all made to have a light footprint for off airfield ops, and the airframe can probably handle a lot more.
As for my question regarding the radar-guided cannon in the Gripen, can it be used to shoot down a frontal aspect missile ? After all, any guided weapon has a predictable trajectory and shooting it down should be possible.
Say you have a F-22 or PAK-FA up against the Gripen, the stealth a/c is the first to spot and fire, but the Gripen turns to heading, shoots down the missile(s), closes range and fisishes the bstrd with gunZ:diablo:
Thus negotiating stealth.
Or am i beeing a bit Tom Clancy here ? 😮
Sign In
