They were only allocated to Warsaw Pact and a few Chinese aircraft – the potential adversary of NATO, SEATO etc.

Sweden, being neutral, was not considered as ‘enemy’ – plus the exact names of the manufacturer and type were fully known – so no need to allocate Reporting Names to them.

Don’t forget that the ASIC names were designed so that the squaddie on the ground, or manning an AD system, could quickly identify (given the training) and report these aircraft.

“Six Fitters inbound at low level” is quicker and more positive than “Six Sukhoi Su-7B’s inbound at low level” – and there is less chance of mis-hearing – ” Say again – six Su-27’s ?????”

Ken

Well, first of all, Sweden was not neutral, it was non-alignment but it would still fun to know what a grunt called a Draken, a Gripen or a Viggen.

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Biafra baby.

MFI-15?

Nobody else translates the name. Why should the Brazilians? Why not just call it Gripen, as we do in English? We don’t call it Griffin, any more than we call the Selex radar Griffin, or the French fighter Squall, or the French navy LHD Thunder.

I thought most airforces atleast translated imported arms into their own native language. So many users of the F-5 actually called it Freedom Fighter?

On a related Gripen news flash today a pair of Gripens had to repel two russian T-22 Backfires flying in the vicinity of southern Öland. If you know your Swedish geography you will realise they had no buisness being there….

How come I have a feeling Viggen was the best AC in its time for air superiority…am I wrong ?

No, and yes. It´s systems of radar, datalink and Active Skyflash was by many considered the best after F-15 Eagle. Some says it was the best in Europe before the F-15s based in Germany became operational, other says the F-15 became operational a short time before the JA-37 Viggen. I don´t really know, or care, it was a great system. Some Viggen-operated fighter wings got “diplomas” sent to them from the SR-71 Blackbird crews after the Viggens managed to get radar/missile-lockon on the intruding plane.

Also, I don’t remember whether Viggen was fully compatible with NATO support systems, something Saab has taken great pains to emphasize is not a problem with Gripen. These factors made potential customers particulalry susceptible to pressure from other warplane producing countries. Too bad because the Viggen was a hell of an aircraft.

So is the Gripen, especially the E/F, which may be why there’s so much unfair sniping at it.

SAAB did propose a NATO compatible Viggen they called “Viggen Eurofighter” that was a competitor to the F-16. So in actuallity the Viggen is the original Eurofighter 🙂

Mediocre things and COTS…
Like the Engine? A slightly modified GE F404? And the entire sensor system? The radar? The PS-05A, the one with the cassegrain antenna built in Edinburgh, taken almost directly from the Blue Vixen, and a great big chunk with a “GEC-Marconi” label on it? And the FBW, the one that was taken directly from the General Dynamics Viper? Or the famous TILDS, that magnificent data link, wich the hardware is entirely a “built in America” thingy, albeit with Swedish specifications…
Freaking hell, the “old” MSA radar, is covered with “Selex” (ex-Ferranti, ex-Gec Marconi) pieces and bits, and SAAB didnt move a finger to “solve” that in two decades.
The entire aircraft is covered with foreign content, far from “COTS” and “mediocre things”, a great big chunk of the propulsion and sensor suite is basicaly Anglo/American hardware.
Next time trawl a bit in the historical content of flight global.

I mentioned the engine earlier. And the RM12 is not a “slightly modified GE F404”, over 50% of it is designed and built by Volvo Aero. But it´s american so… The other things you write about, it´s all american, what has that do to do with England stopping Gripen to be exported to Argentina? If you replace simple things as ejectionseats, landinggears and parts of the fusalage with SAAB/EMBRAER products AND put the SAAB/Ericsson NORA radar in it, what are the brittish gonna do? Going to the US embassy and cry about the engine?