I have some good news and bad news .

The good news is that Gripen Demo has been the only twin seater fighter capable to fly at supercruise, so it is highly possible that you are the first civilian has been obtained this, then my congratulations.

Indeed I did not want to break you, but I have to tell you the truth that has been omitted from you since 2011, in fact you did not fly the Gripen NG but the Gripen Demo that were converted from Gripen D to use the F414 engine instead the F404 from Gripen D.

Although the Gripen Demo and Gripen NG should have been keeping several parts in common such as 60% of the airframe and the engine F414, yet the Gripen Demo is quite different from the Gripen NG, once the Gripen Demo hasn’t been used even like test bench from software from Gripen NG, despite the Gripen NG has been developed for almost 15 years.

Another bad news is that aircraft carrier Sao Paulo (ex-Foch) from Brazilian Navy will be withdrawn from service once its modernization plan from DCN has been abandoned by the Brazilian Navy.

In fact, such program to extend the useful life and modernize such aircraft carrier with 32,000 t for US$ 1 Billion does not seem very costly, but the program would have been taking almost 10 years to be complete, so there were lots of doubt from Brazil Navy about the feasibility of this program as well as its end cost after 10 years.

There are not definition about the replacement of the Sao Paulo aircraft carrier, since the cut of resources has been generalized among Brazilian military forces, even the acquisition of the SAM SA 22 Panstir S 1 were also canceled by Brazil.

So far the acquisition of the 36 Gripen NG has not been affected since it will be financed by the Government of Sweden through loans to Brazil.

However about the supposed development of the Sea Gripen or Gripen M for the Brazil this plans has been disappeared from radar screen across the Never Land.

SAAB has just proposed the Gripen M to India, so it is still a possibility,
but a shared development for India and Brazil would have been a stronger proposition.

I’d take care about bribing during Brazil competition if i were you… SAAB is in a quite bad scandal there… Involving Lula and his son…

So SAAB is accused to have bribed Lula to buy the Rafale, which he publicly supported?

er, basically, in Indias MMRCA contest Gripen was not shortlisted, thus it lost on technical grounds. Today it may have a chance to get back as Tejas replacement, more or less, meaning a light single engine fighter (which it really is, in fact)

In Switzerland, it was dead last any way you look at it. The only thing where it was better was price. It was selected by politicians who, basically said: “for what we need, that sum will be enough”.. but, basically, they conducted a competition where they wanted to replace a Porsche 911 by something better. They got propositions from two supercars and a WV bug… politicians chose the bug (barely caricatural here, I admit 😉 )

In Brasil, once more, it is its price that got it chosen, nothing else

SAAB was selling Gripen E for the MMRCA. It was not available in 2011, and India wanted quick availability.
No surprise it was not shortlisted.
It is not replacing Tejas, it is complementing it (if selected).
Now it is replacing Rafale to get the numbers up,

Switzerland compared Gripen C vs competition. They selected Gripen E.
In Brazil, the Rafale did not provide enough bang for the buck, and the US screwed up by spying.

Boeing proved they can quickly prototype fighters. Lockmart has no plans to expand F-16 sales. And there were plenty of ways to improve on the F-16 to make it relevant into the future. Boeing probably could have piggybacked off Saab for a Viggen II which would have been just a Gripen upscaled with an F100. Plenty of potential for their T-X design, too. The market has never favored heavies.

You mean SAAB/Boeing?

Except for the small problem of all of the planes they plan to replace with it having already fallen out of the sky by then…

They needed the new planes 10 years ago. Even the original MMRCA competition was later than it should have been.

They need to replace the MiG-21s, but also the Mirages, Jaguars and MiG-27.
The latter three are getting MLUed providing another 10 years of service, but then need replacement.
Decision in 2021 fit the schedule of replacements.

I think MiG-21s will be replaced by LCA Mk 1, 1A and later Mk 2.

If they wanted the F-16V, they would order a number now.

Not sure how this will play out any different to how MMRCA did. Why do they need to wait until 2021 to ink a deal, that is 4 years from now (yes I understand Indian bureaucracy…).

If they think that Gripen E is the one they want, then making the decision in 2021 makes a lot of sense.
That is when deliveries are feasable and the aircraft becomes ready.
Last orders for F-16 is to be delivered end 2017, so will there be an F-16 production line at time of decision?

The Gripen order for Brazil includes a lot of extras.

The cost of Gripen E for the Swedish Air Force is estimated to 35,6 B SEK for 60 planes.
The dollar rate is 9,18 which would give 65 M$ per plane.
The dollar rate was probably a little bit lower when the estimation was done, so real figure would be higher.
Price is probably based on cannibalizing Gripen C for some components, again making price higher for completely new planes.

I have seen the figure $72 M per plane.