I’ve been going down a rabbit hole comparing our chosen jet (F35A)against the one we almost bought twice: the Saab Gripen E. Curious what this community thinks. A quick recap of the saga: Switzerland selected the Gripen E back in 2011, but voters rejected it in a 2014 referendum (53% against), partly because the aircraft hadn’t even flown yet at the time. After years of limbo, a new evaluation in 2021 landed on the F-35A: 36 jets for ~6 billion CHF and that purchase survived a 2022 referendum with 56% in favor. But because they aren’t that affortable as we thought we will now only get 30. The case for the F-35:
- Genuinely 5th generation: stealth, internal weapons bays, and sensor fusion that no other Western fighter can match
- The cockpit fuses radar, infrared, EW, and datalink into one picture — pilots describe situational awareness as a generational leap
- Scored highest in Switzerland’s own evaluation on capability metrics
- Interoperability with France, Germany, Italy: our neighbors, who are all F-35 or Eurofighter operators
- Swiss industry got some offset contracts
- Hard and very expensive (about 5x more expensive per flight hour than the grippen e) to operate The case for the Gripen E :
- Designed from day one for road basing and dispersed operations (which Switzerland’s terrain and Cold War-era highway airstrips are literally built for)
- Flight hour cost roughly ~$6,000 vs the F-35’s ~$35,000+, meaning more actual flying hours per franc
- Sweden is far more willing than the US to allow sovereign operation, software updates, and technology transfer without political conditions
- The Raven ES-05 AESA radar and Meteor missile combo is no joke, it punches well above its weight class
- For a neutral country policing its own airspace, do we really need stealth?
- Cheaper to buy, we could buy more for the same or even less money The Switzerland-specific irony: We are probably one of the few countries where Gripen’s dispersal capability is genuinely relevant doctrine rather than a marketing slide. The Swiss military literally designed highway sections as emergency airstrips. The F-35 needs significantly more ground infrastructure, and fewer flight hours due to cost means less trained pilots. Whether that trade-off was worth it for the stealth and sensor advantage is a real question. On the other hand, the F-35 will still be a front-line aircraft in 2050. The Gripen E, for all its qualities, is still a conventional 4.5-gen airframe. What is your Take? Drop your take in the comments: F-35 or Gripen E? Right choice, wrong choice, or does it even matter? I’m genuenly interestet in all of your opinions submitted by /u/SnowTim07
Originally posted by u/SnowTim07 on r/Switzerland
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