The Gripen B was limited to 7.5G only as far back as in the year 2000 !! it had already entered Flygvapnet service several years before that (it entered IOC in 1995 and FOC in 1997) and it was still not capable of flying at its max specified G (8.5G) and the Gripen A was not capable of flying at 9G as far back as 2000.

No. Gripen B was handed over to the Swedish Air Force in mid-1998.

They had 2 machines at the turn to 1999. It’s longer and has different flying characteristics than Adam so capping the FCS on a new design first assigned to the Gripen school wing was only wise.

But I see your point. I don’t think it’s fair to say Tejas won’t reach its goals because these things is a work in progress. There should probably be some criticism on program management and testing schedules otoh. It’s one thing to fly test flights, and another thing to do something during them.

Media savvy companies like Saab on the other hand know exactly how to carefully build an image and not let some facts percolate out or negative reports to mar the image of a fighter.

Media savvy? SAAB?! rofl 😀

BTW, I was looking for the MMRCA thread…

Another delay.

First Flight of Marine JSF in STOVL Mode Now Expected in December

Nov. 4, 2009 — The Joint Strike Fighter program office expects in December to conduct the first vertical-lift flight of the BF-1, the Marine Corps’ short-take-off, vertical-landing (STOVL) F-35 variant test aircraft.

http://defensenewsstand.com/

a lie?

Lockheed spokesman Chris Geisel :

“There are no indications from any of the partner countries that they are going to trim back,”

source

…

Danish Defence Minister Søren Gade:

“I have no favorite. Each of the three has its advantages. But you must be deaf, dumb and blind if you do not think it’s important for the acquisition that we reduce from 48 to 30 the number of operational aircraft. I reveal no state secrets by disclosing that we will buy more than 25 and fewer than 35 new aircraft. “

link

And then there’s NL, UK, IT…

Surprised to hear about UK support for Gripen….

Haven’t noticed it anyway.

Brazil’s F-X2 deadline sparks war of words
Robert Hewson Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons Editor
Oct 06, 2009
London

The Brazilian government’s notional selection of France as its F-X2 future fighter supplier has been received with mixed reactions.
Embraer was this week forced to issue a statement contradicting the chief of its own defence sector business, who singled out the Swedish Gripen bid as the only one that offered full technology transfer and industrial control to Brazil.

The three F-X2 competitors submitted their Best and Final Offers (BAFOs) to the Brazilian Ministry of Defence (MoD) on 2 October. The deadline for submissions was extended by two weeks, into October, when the F-X2 process was thrown into confusion by President Lula da Silva’s September announcement that France would win the competition.

A final, formal decision on the F-X2 winner could come as soon as 23 October, when Brazil’s air force celebrates Aviation Day.
In an interview with Brazil’s Valor Econômico financial newspaper on 28 September, Orlando José Ferreira Neto, executive vice-president for the defence market at Embraer, said he thought the Gripen deal offered the best return for Brazil.

“We have assessed the three offers by request of the Brazilian Air Force and we saw that the Swedish Saab offer is the one that will ensure knowledge and technology aggregation for Brazil within the ‘on the job doing’ premise, meaning learning by doing it. We are not interested in manufacturing parts. We seek mastering the knowledge that we do not have and that will be useful for us to develop future aircraft,” he said.

Neto’s comments echo what he told Jane’s during a visit to Embraer’s São José dos Campos headquarters in April. Then Neto noted that both the Dassault Rafale and Boeing Super Hornet were effectively finished products, requiring little or no future development.

He also cited strong concerns about US technology transfer policy, saying: “Tech transfer is a big problem because by law each piece requires a ‘yes or no’ decision by Congress on a case-by-case basis. For an air force that wants to be independent this may be an impediment.”

On the Gripen, Neto told Jane’s : “The Gripen NG is a brand new development. There is not an NG aircraft yet and it will take a lot of engineering and highly qualified work to turn the demo aircraft into the NG. So the strength of the Gripen offer is technology transfer. Of course development has its own risk, but the best training is not in the classroom, it’s doing it on the job.”

Following Neto’s Brazilian newspaper interview Embraer was forced to issue a statement the next day stating: “Embraer clarifies that it is not directly participating in the selection process of the new F-X2 fighter for the Brazilian Air Force and, contrary to what was stated, it has no preference among the proposals presented.”

The Swedish Gripen team has enlisted UK government support for its F-X2 bid, based on the return for UK industry that the Gripen provides. An initial batch of 36 Gripens for Brazil would have GBP200 million (USD319 million) of UK content and the expected order for at least 100 aircraft over 15 years would see that figure rise to over GBP1 billion. For this reason Saab has had UK government support from the highest levels for its F-X2 bid.

The issue of national control over technology remains a central issue in Brazil. Dassault has made much of the fact that only it has a package sourced completely from a single home nation. In fact, Dassault is in the uncomfortable position of relying on Swedish suppliers for some key combat systems including the Mica BVR missile datalink and the laser rangefinder in Rafale’s OSF sensor fit.

http://www.janes.com/articles/Janes-Defence-Weekly-2009/Brazil-s-F-X2-deadline-sparks-war-of-words.html (login)

(The two mentioned systems is a Ericsson (now Saab) rear data-link receiver and a Saab Avionics LRF system developed and sold to Thales)

Google translation….

FSP, 03/10
Sweden improve fighter proposal and attracts Lula

Air Force officials send to the president on film Gripen, Embraer also expresses a preference for the plane Swedish Government plans to make way for the President to Stockholm next Tuesday to convince him of the advantages of its jet

ELIANE CANTANHÊDE
COLUMNIST SHEET

The FX-2 program of fleet renewal of Brazilian fighters entered the final stages yesterday when all three finalists have formalized their final proposals to the Air Force, with better prices and conditions. The Rafale, the French company Dassault, is the preferred policy area, but the Gripen NG, the Swedish Saab, still in the running to be cheaper and offer more technology transfer.

The third competitor is the F-18 Super Hornet, the U.S. Boeing, had, including the market, as virtually out of contention.

Despite the political preference of the plateau and the Defense of France, Lula took a flight from abroad to see a short flash movie of five minutes of Saab in Portuguese on the Gripen NG. According to Folha, he said, “Wow, I did not know that!”

This same film, shown yesterday at the Swedish Embassy for journalists, said in brief that the domestic industry will be responsible for 40% of the development of the Gripen NG and that Brazil could export the plane to South America and its traditional partners, and provide parts for all the Swedish Gripen sold “to the entire planet.”

The movie was “smuggled” to Lula by Air Force officials, who see advantages in the Gripen NG to be an ongoing project that already counts with the participation of Brazilian technicians.

Pilots of the country have flown in the “concept demonstrator”, a sort of preview of the plane, whose manufacture in Brazil is made from the start, with the first delivery in 2014. And with 175% of trade-industrial and research for the value of the package.

Also the company Embraer has expressed support for the Swedish package. The company will be directly benefited by the transfer of technology and become the supplier of parts for fighter planes.

Saab representatives complain that Minister Nelson Jobim, primarily responsible for conducting the process, visited military installations in France, the USA and even Russia (whose Sukkoi was disqualified), but was not to Sweden.

On Tuesday, Lula will be in Stockholm for the 3rd Summit of EU-Brazil. The question of the fighters will be a priority of the Swedish government to support a discrete and CEO.

The latest manifestation of the governments of both Brazil and France were that the business goes to the Rafale in the wake of the package of submarines and helicopters, estimated at $ 20 billion.

Only there is no apparent signs in favor of the F-18, considered the most sophisticated in the world. The Brazilian government does not believe the promises of U.S. real transfer of technology. A new fact is that the American Trans States Holding has announced the purchase of one hundred commuters Mitsubishi Aircraft, Japan. The company has never exported aircraft, unlike Embraer, one of the largest manufacturers of such aircraft.

FAB Team will prepare the final report to be submitted to the High Command of the Air Force. The result will go to defense, Plateau and the National Defense Council. The decision is Lula.

source

http://englishrussia.com/?p=3524

Let’s see Americans do that!

My suspicion on why Eurofighter was left out from the FAB shortlist is that the SH, JAS-39 and Rafale all have a mature maritime attack capability which is actually harder to do than people might think. Radar modes has to be developed and extensively tested besides actual weapons integration… not sure where the EF is today on such development and if any customer has ordered the capability but it’s certainly not something that is operational today.

They also have the large recon pods integrated, again not sure where the EF is on that.

Yep this could definitely be Rafale’s year…