Sweden is probably the only country that has road-bases as an operational integrated part of the airforce not only for a extraordinary or war-time purpose and with jets designed specifically to match this system.

Across the nation there’s a few large airbase groups (or we can call them AirWing), in one group there’s :

Containing one or several of:

Main base (Typical airbase with one or more large wide and long runways, fixed A/C hangars, full service, living conditions etc) but also shorter runways (up to 1800m)in direct connection to the base, these can be straight sections of road, a civil airfield or dedicated runways close but ‘off base’ for instance in a tight squeeze between high trees.

Side-base (dedicated small airbase or civil airfield that might need some preparation and is not manned during normal operations)

Reserve-base (Similar to a side-base but need more work to get ready)

Short-track A short strip of country-side road, widened.

All of them have re-arm re-fit pockets/sections attached to the track, it can be either a open field concrete section or a pocket inside the forest. To support the spread out system there’s all kinds of mobile equipment from landing lights, service section now capable of repairing composit materials, field hangars (either inflatable or more capable ones constructed on site within hours) and ammo and fuel trucks of course.

So one airwing is responsible for a very large geographical part of the country.

check out these nose gear carriages. Guess who’s built for hard landings.

Dual-wheel strong carriage + canards act as gigantic airbrakes on Gripen. (photo is version B, the C/D have a even stronger carriage)

Rafale a similar setup, even stronger on the marine version. Two wheels
adds stability and ground pressure area + more results from carbon brakes.

Eurofighter. A single wheel setup. (If you don’t need it, don’t add it.)

F-16. Single wheel. (brrrrrr)

Oh btw, what did AFM actually say Phil, please? 🙂

x2 🙂

(btw talk about costs and too expensive…this is fighter jets.. so much more than just money comes into play…how often don’t we see offset deals over 100% or government assisted trade deals etc..)

yeah. 2 years ago it was revealed that Serge Dassault had attemped to censor the publisher of Le Figaro on a story regarding Rafale jets to Algeria (as the story talked about the assistance of Jacques Chirac and that made it all very uncomfortable)

Algeria is said to update and replace all its current ~200 jet inventory and so far I believe they have ordered upgrades and new mig-29’s for half (90 fixed->120) that inventory.

As long as people remember AESA is just the antenna technique and can’t do jack for an airforce without good support and processing systems behind it. (i.e ‘putting lipstick on a cow’) It’s all about achieving information superiority and that is delivered to and from the operator by computer guided (sub) systems.

Looks like a Reconnaissance Pod (with camera)

@ SOC

The 2003 flight to the US by 2 JAS 39A was done for :
2 invitations. One from Nellis under the red flag framework and one
from the AF to participate in honoring the 100th year of Wrights.

The jets landed on Andrews AFB and was supposed to join a airshow
4 days later but due to hurricane Isabel they had to relocate to
Nellis sooner than expected. There they spent some time preparing
for future participation with the JAS 39 C version.
They also had stops in Scotland, Iceland, Greenland and Canada. 🙂

..

The current radar in batch 3 jets is PS/05A MKIII with significally
upgraded processors and s/w. MK4 upgrade includes high resolution SAR.

The MK5 NORA (AESA radar, EW Suit, Data Com. All in one)
is likely to be available in a export version before serial production
for the swedish airforce. The current MSI39 demonstrator program ordered
by the Swedish military will end 2009-12-31, after that it’s ready to go.

…

@ Entropy

All C-130 Hercules in the Swedish airforce is receiving the big AMP upgrade
between 2007 and 2009. In addition to this, and this is rather new info,
the Swedish military has issued a procurement for new airlift capability
to the Nordic Battle Group. The requirement posted on http://www.fmv.se for these new
cargo planes only matches the A400M.

—-

Today I read that the Swedish FMV approved the funding of the Stridsbåt 2010 “Ny”, the future CombatBoat 90H.

Where did you read this? It’s not on the FMV website (yet)