The Norwegians use a pod with a parachute to allow their F-35s toland on shorter runways, andit is not working as intended.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a29463777/norway-f35-parachute-problem/

Other F-35s still require long runways.

Draken had a datalink, which was quite unique at the time.

The contract between Sweden and Hungary expires in 2026. It was extended in 2017, and includes an upgrade to the MS20 standard.
What happens after 2026 is of course totally open.

Gripen E has gone into serial production and is expected to enter SwAF service in 2021 rather than in 2023, as previously expected

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar…ets-sa-455831/

SAAB seem to have a habit of doing what they said they were going to do or better, don’t they? Congratulations (in advance) to them.

I wonder when Brazil will order more. Talking to a SAAB representative at Farnborough last year, he was saying that SAAB was hopeful Sweden would be increasing the size of its order, too. They also have a good chance of picking up an order for 30 or more from Switzerland and the recent cancellation of second hand F-16’s from Israel makes a Croatian order a possibility. I assume that pursuing selection in Canada is a waste of time but that selection by Finland remains a possibility.

Order book might double in size in the next 2/3 years?

According to some article I read last week, there are early negotiations going on with Brazil for another 72 Gripen E/F fighters.

The pilot hit several large birds, and tried to return to base, but the plane became increasingly hard to handle,
so the pilot ejected about 5km from the base. The aircraft crashed in difficult terrain

Budget fighter? Really? Whose budget are you referring to, since most countries that may look for a budget fighter will find the Gripen E to be a damn expensive jet.

Answer this question- will it be a sub $80 million fighter, flyaway price?

The Swedish Air Force is buying for $72M average cost. Unlike the flyaway price this includes R&D.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flyaway_cost
With the ~100 orders, each aircraft is burdened with $2B/100 = $20M, so a guess of flyaway price is ~$52M.
Currency Exchange variations may change this up and down. The original order was 35,6 B SEK which translated to $72M per aircraft, but the dollar vs SEK rate has increased so the price in SEK has increased for US sourced parts, but Swedish and U.K. parts should decrease in dollars.

The $80M price for F-35 does not include upgrade to Block 4 which is expected to be $16B by some
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2018/03/08/new-f-35-modernization-plan-could-come-with-hefty-16b-price-tag/
Divided over 4,000 aircrafts, this is an additional $4M.

A budget conscious country would be looking at CPFH which would be more important than the cost of the aircraft. At 8,000 hours, this adds $80M if CPFH is $10,000.

Mentioning that the MiG-31 had a datalink before the JA-37 Viggen is useless information.
That is just trolling, and got the deserved answer.
Saying the the MiG-31 had a datalink, and then comparing the features is useful information.

I have wondered for some time how the Automatic Gun Aiming works on Viggen and Gripen.
It would make sense to me, if the aircraft could detect the distance, position and speed vector of a designated enemy, and once the pilot has achieved an approximate firing position, the aircraft would enter an auto pilot mode, where it would create a perfect deflection shot, firing the cannon at the right time. Then it would return controls to the pilot.

Is there any aircraft with such functionality?