Weapons stations 1-4 & 8-11 are perfectly capable of employing Sidewinders although in practice you would never see them on any but 1, 2, 10 & 11.

However, I doubt you will see the E/A-18G Growler carrying Sidewinders. EW assets aren’t meant to get close enough to the enemy to require WVR missiles. The typical loadout including two AMRAMM should be sufficient.

That chart shows ALL F/A-18 configurations. Only the middle one is the Growler, and it does not list AIM-9 as being capable of carriage. And there is no station 1 on an EF-18G. Pretty sure station 3 is reserved for only ALQ-99 and station 4 is for AMRAAM/wet hardpoints. Station 2 is only listed as HARM capable.

Got an email back from the author of the article. Will write back at some point today but thought I would share.

Thanks for the note. You are clearly knowledgeable about the Gripen.
Our story is based on a report from Swedish Radio (Svergies Radio),
which appeared on Friday, not on any independent reporting, and is
meant for a general audience.

According to the SR report, the ‘new’ version of the Gripen is indeed
the C/D, but SR didn’t specify if the inability to encrypt was for
voice or data communications.

As far as using the word ‘secret’ is concerned — that is more or less
the wording used in the SR report, which we also took to mean encrypted.

Our understanding is that the C/D is not equipped to receive
communications from the Swedish-only system (what you call TIDLS), and
can only use the Nato-compatible system (Link 16).

I think Allan Widman’s statements need to be seen in the context of the
ongoing debate about Sweden military spending. He may very well simply
be trying direct criticism at generals in charge of the procurement–I
really don’t know–that is just speculation, but Widman has been very
vocal on defence issues–and is pro-Nato.

I think the concern or frustration (justified or genuine or not) has to
do with Widman’s perception that the military failed to say that the
C/D wouldn’t be TIDLS compatible and now can’t be until 2015 because of
spending cuts. He may just be upset for feeling like he was the last to
know, suffering from buyer’s remorse, or there may have been deliberate
deception on the part of the military to get the Gripen order approved.

What I don’t know is whether Swedish air force command centers are
equipped to communicate via Link 16…if some or all of them are not
able to do so, then the situation could indeed be problematic when the
Gripen A/Bs are taken out of service.

So, the headline could be considered somewhat misleading as currently
written, I admit. To be more accurate, it perhaps could have read
‘can’t send secret messages originating from Swedish command centers
sending messages using TIDLS’. For better or worse, rules of headline
brevity prevent us from giving a full explanation.

In addition, Gripen IFF was not mentioned in the SR report.

I hope this helps explain things a bit.

Best,

—

David
Landes

Journalist

Writing the author of the article an email.

edit- reading the article you posted Signatory, going to take a bit, Swedish isn’t my first language 😉