After three years of discussions, at the end of May 2026, the Swedish government confirmed that it would transfer at least 38 Gripen multi-role fighters to Ukraine. “GORDON” briefly tells when and how many aircraft the Ukrainian Armed Forces will receive, as well as how these aircraft are better than the American F-16 and Soviet Su-27, which are already in service with the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
What planes will Ukraine receive and when?
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has currently announced the transfer of 38 aircraft: 16 Gripen C/D fighters (that is, older modification aircraft) will be donated to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and Sweden will sell another 22 Gripen E fighters. This is the latest modification of the aircraft; the first production unit was delivered to the Swedish army in 2023.
The cost of the contract was not announced, but according to data from open sources, one Gripen E can cost from $80 to 110 million, depending on the installed equipment. Last year, Kristersson said that in total Sweden could sell Kyiv 100-150 aircraft over the next 10-15 years. This time the Swedish Prime Minister did not specify whether this option remains relevant.
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The first aircraft should be delivered at the beginning of 2027 (we are talking about older models, which Sweden will provide free of charge) – as part of the new support package from Sweden in the amount $2.7 billion. In turn, deliveries of the Gripen E version should take place before 2030, they will be paid for through a defense loan from the EU of €90 billion.
In general, talks about Ukraine receiving Gripen have been going on since 2023. Then Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky spoke about the “breakthrough result” of negotiations on Swedish fighters and promised that they would soon appear in the Ukrainian skies.
“Now we have a breakthrough result on Gripen – cool, modern Swedish combat aircraft. Our soldiers are already starting to test them. And we are step by step, negotiation by negotiation, getting closer to Gripen appearing in our skies,” Zelensky said following his visit to Sweden.
Will Gripen make a difference on the battlefield?
Hardly. Both the Gripen and the F-16 with Mirage, which Ukraine has already received, are fourth-generation multirole fighters with a wide range of weapons (we are talking about the older “griffins”). Most of the aircraft's technical characteristics are virtually identical, although the Gripen is smaller than its competitors, making it harder to hit. At the same time, the Swedish prime minister, speaking about the transfer of fighters, emphasized that we are primarily talking about strengthening Ukraine’s air defense, and not supporting offensive operations.
However, even the old Gripen have several significant advantages over the American F-16 and Soviet Su-27. For example, the Gripen is much cheaper to operate than American aircraft. “In terms of operating costs, the Gripen is the cheapest of the aircraft for this purpose,” aviation expert and leading employee of NAU Valery Romanenko told UNIAN in a commentary.
In addition, the Gripen is less demanding on the quality of runways (unlike the F-16), which can play a significant role in the face of constant Russian attacks.
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Vladimir Zelensky described the advantages of the Swedish fighter as follows: “Gripen is a new word. They are the fastest to train with. It takes off from anywhere. And most importantly, almost all available weapons can be mounted on it.”
How did Gripen perform in combat conditions?
This is one of the most serious shortcomings of the Swedish aircraft – it was practically never used in combat conditions. Defense Express notes that Gripen first took part in combat patrols in 2011 – during the UN mission in Libya in April – November (during the overthrow of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi). However, by that time the Libyan air force had already ceased to exist, so the Gripen rather controlled the entrusted zone during 650 sorties.
The second time Swedish fighters took part in combat operations was during the recent armed conflict between Thailand and Cambodia. The Thai Air Force's Gripen successfully hit several ground targets, but the Thai Air Force operated “almost in range conditions”: Cambodia does not have its own combat aircraft and has mediocre air defense systems.
In addition, Gripen “fought” Soviet Su-27s during military exercises between China and Thailand in 2015 – and then the Swedish aircraft demonstrated a significant advantage over Soviet fighters in two out of three simulations.
“During training battles beyond visual visibility, the pilots of the Thai JAS 39 Gripen showed 41 “effective hits of the enemy”, the pilots of the Chinese Su-27SK – only nine. During training battles at a distance of more than 30 km, the Thai Gripen had 88% of the “effective hits”, the Chinese Su-27 – only 14%. And during simulated collisions at a distance of more than 50 km, the JAS 39 Gripen of the Thai Air Force showed 10 victories, while the Chinese on the Su-27 – not a single one,” writes Defense Express.
The only element of the exercise in which the Chinese Su-27s were better was close combat. “But here even the Chinese themselves admitted that they were able to show such a result only because the Thai Air Force used old short-range AIM-9L air-to-air missiles instead of IRIS-T for such clashes,” the publication notes.
This material was first published October 2025. We have updated it based on new data that became known after Vladimir Zelensky’s visit to Sweden on May 28, 2026.
