Gripen: Pedigree, Profile, Price

With recent NATO members Hungary and the Czech Republic motivated to commit huge portions of their defense budgets to the modern Gripen fighter, the plane gains a reputation as the new bargain aircraft, writes Andrew Rhys Thompson for ISN Security Watch.

Aside from the home market of Sweden, the Czech Republic and Hungary have been the only European countries to thus far acquire the Saab-built Gripen fighter.

For both of these Central European NATO members, the motivations for the procurement were rather similar, and in both countries the strategic decision to opt for a next generation fighter was far less controversial than the purchase of the F/A-18 in Switzerland or the Eurofighter in Austria.

Compared to the ongoing Eurofighter saga in the Austrian air force and its unpopular position with the Austrian public, the Gripen has been able to navigate rather smooth skies in both the Czech Republic and Hungary.
 
In the Czech Republic, the decision to acquire a next generation fighter arose from the desire to maintain an air force with a supersonic capability: All the Cold War legacy MiG 29 units were sold to Poland in 1995, and the fleet of outdated MiG 21s was slated for decommissioning. As such, plans for the acquisition of a new fighter started quickly after the country's accession to NATO in 1999 and were formalized in 2003.

While Prague at one point in 2002 had envisioned the purchase of as many as 24 fighters, a subsequent blockade in parliament and a political compromise led to an eventual agreement on a reduced package of 14 units, including 12 single-seaters and two double-seaters. As part of the re-dimensioned financial parameters, Prague also only agreed to lease the Gripens from Sweden for a 10-year period at a total cost of CZK 19.65 billion.
 
From the very beginning of the evaluation process, the Czech government was drawn to the Gripen when some other vendors withdrew from the bidding process because of what they perceived as competition guidelines that made the eventual choice of Gripen all but a foregone conclusion.. These circumstances, as well as repeated rumors of possibly undisclosed payments by BAE systems, a member of Saab’s Gripen consortium, cast some doubts over the selection process.

Most of the debate in the Czech parliament in 2002 and 2003 also centered itself primarily on the rumors of possible corruption or hidden beneficiaries, with especially the opposition Civic Democrats (ODS) using the opportunity to take predictable shots at the governing Social-Democrats (ČSSD).

In April 2005, the Czech air force received delivery of its first new fighters and just a few months later all 14 Gripens were fully operational and ready for deployment from the Caslav base in central Bohemia.

While the strategic desire to have a NATO interoperable air force played a big part in the logic of acquiring new supersonic fighters - and that rationale was extensively used for PR purposes to legitimize the high cost of the planes - some of those reasons have now come into play, as the Czech air force has been using two of its Gripens to patrol the air space of the Baltic countries since May 2009, as part of a joint NATO program.

Since Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia do not have the capacity or the equipment to police their own territorial airspace, the three national governments have collectively delegated the task to NATO since 2004. Within NATO, various different member states have been filling the assignment on a rotational, three-month basis. From May to July 2009, the Czechs will carry out the assignment, before handing over operations at the Siauliai base in Lithuania to the German air force.

As the lease of the Gripens in the Czech Republic has already passed four of the budgeted 10 years, many proponents in the Czech armed forces are already starting to think beyond 2015.

As Frantisek Sulc, a journalist for the daily newspaper Lidové noviny, told ISN Security Watch: “The leasing agreement virtually means just ‘delayed’ procurement.  At this stage it seems 99 percent certain that the supersonic equipment will also be retained for the long-term future.”

Hungary: Another satisfied customer

Indeed in Hungary, the government structured its leasing contract with Saab in such a way, so that after 10 years the 14 Gripens would automatically become the property of the Hungarian air force.

While the Hungarian decision to procure 12 single-seaters and two double-seaters also followed the desire to maintain a supersonic and NATO interoperable force, the Gripens were initially not acquired to replace the older Soviet-built stock, but to compliment the wing of 28 MiG 29s. Yet because the whole Hungarian fleet of MiG 29s has been grounded since spring 2009 due to safety concerns over the vertical stabilizer and additional corrosion issues, following two crashes reported by the Russian air force, the Gripens have been placed into priority service and the Hungarian government might consider the possibility of adding four more double-seaters to eventually replace decommissioned MiGs.

Regular service of the Gripen started in Hungary at the Kecskemet air base in March 2006 and the last plane was delivered by December 2007. During the preceding model selection process, the Swedish jet mainly beat out US offers for the F-16.

The fighter procurement process in Hungary was rather remarkable in that it drew little public opposition and both major political factions supported it. While the center-right FIDESZ government signed the initial contract in 2001, the succeeding socialist cabinet opted to expand it in 2003.

As Zoltan Berenyi, professor of political science at the University of Debrecen, commented for ISN Security Watch: “The original deal was for HUF 114 billion and 14 aircraft. In 2003, the new socialist coalition modified the contract and increased its value to HUF 191 billion in exchange for more advanced and technically upgraded models.”

Despite the lack of public controversy, the commercial procurement process brought with it suspicions and even some investigations about possible kickback payoffs.

Penetrating Central Europe


The very similar acquisition and deployment circumstances in both the Czech Republic and Hungary demonstrate how both of these recent NATO members have been keen to commit huge portions of their defense budgets to modern military equipment and NATO-compatible gear.

In the case of both countries, the Gripen also symbolizes a desire to have a modern plane with a certain pedigree and profile. Operationally, the Gripens have given both countries the ability to maintain autonomous air space surveillance and even a degree of air defense capability, though any true form of air defense of course would also require comprehensive collaboration with other NATO allies.

While Saab has benefited from penetrating a previously unlikely Central European market, the fact that neither the Czechs nor the Hungarians are the world’s biggest spenders on defense equipment has given the Gripen somewhat of a reputation as a bargain ‘budget aircraft’ - a reputation it seems to be comfortable with and an angle it has already begun pitching to the Swiss Air Force in its search for a new fighter.
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