Recently, news came from the Singapore Air Show: the Philippines is negotiating with Sweden to purchase an unknown number of JAS39 "Gripen" fighters. The purpose of the Philippines' purchase of Gripen fighter jets is to enable it to deal with China's military presence in the South China Sea in the future. However, since the Philippines may not be able to afford a few expensive "Gripen" fighters, it may use "Lend-Lease" to obtain these fighters. So, will the Philippine "Gripen" be able to defeat the Chinese Air Force?
As we all know, the Philippines has been in a state of ups and downs in its relations with China because it has occupied a number of islands and reefs in the South China Sea. However, when Duterte was the first to serve, the Philippines was relatively restrained in this regard and did not overdo it. But since Marcos Jr. came to power, the Philippines has fully turned to the United States, not only newly leasing to the United States a number of military bases that can contain the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait; It has also actively dispatched its own military aircraft and US military to conduct so-called "joint patrols" in the South China Sea in a vain attempt to rely on foreign forces to achieve its goal of intensifying its invasion and occupation of China's islands and reefs.
The FA-50 is the most advanced in the Philippine Air Force's active equipment.
The Philippine Air Force was formed shortly after World War II, and until 2013 the country's air force used American-made warplanes. However, since the F-5 was all retired in 2005, the Philippines has completely lost all the main fighters, although in the past two years the country has also bought some cheap second-hand phone charges, but these second-hand phones are backward in technology and in poor condition, the key is that the Philippine Air Force has not bought a suitable main aircraft. Although the United States approved the issuance of 10 F-16C Block 70 72s and two F-16D Block 70 72s in 2021, the lion asked for the Philippines 24$300 million. However, due to the fact that the Philippines was shy at the time and only set aside $1.1 billion for this purchase, the deal ended without a hitch.
The Brazilian "Tucano" propeller attack aircraft is also the "top brand" of the Philippine Air Force
Although the United States very much hopes that the Philippines can arm itself to contain China in the South China Sea, the American fire merchants are not philanthropists, so they will not lose a cent of the money they should make. Therefore, until now, the Philippine Air Force can only use a batch of South Korean FA-50s bought in 2013 and six A-20 "Tucano" propeller light attack training aircraft bought from Brazil as the main force of the Air Force, and the generation in Southeast Asia can be regarded as barely stepping into the threshold of "fourth-generation aircraft". But the FA-50 and A-20 "Tucano" are just light trainer aircraft that can only cope with low-intensity combat, and if the Philippines wants to use these things to be tough with the Chinese Air Force, it will be like sending sheep into the mouth of the tiger!
As a result, the Philippines is still looking for a fighter model that can serve as the main force of its air force, but the country's tight defense budget leaves it with few options, and Sweden's Gripen fighter jet may be one of them. According to a press release from the Philippine Department of National Defense, the Philippines and Sweden are currently working out the details of a defense cooperation agreement between the two countries on the procurement of Gripen fighter jets under a memorandum of understanding signed in June last year and approved in September. If the agreement is finalized, the Swedish Gripen will be a candidate for the Philippine Air Force's main multirole fighter.
The latest version of Sweden's Gripen is the E F (single and two-seater) model, equipped with a digital cockpit, Volvo RM12 engines, Active Electronic Scan Array (AESA) radar, infrared search and tracking (IRST) sensors, and 10 hard hardpoints under the wings. The aircraft can carry a variety of air-to-air missiles and anti-ship missiles, including long-range Meteor, AIM-9, AIM-120, IRIS-T, RBS-15 and GBU-49 laser-guided bombs. "Gripen" as a single-engine light fighter with a fuselage of 34 tons of internal fuel can only support its range of 800 km, but with the addition of external auxiliary fuel tanks and 6 air-to-air missiles, its combat radius will reach 1300 km.
Lease an aircraft "of the Czech Air Force."
However, even if the "Gripen" is so good, its export road is extremely bumpy, since 2014 with Brazil reached an agreement on the export of the E F type, Sweden has not had any "Gripen" sales records in the past 10 years. Therefore, Sweden is bound to firmly grasp the Philippines, which is not a wealthy customer, although the price of a single "Gripen" is as high as 85 million US dollars - has exceeded the ** of the F-35A - but Sweden has always had a "strange" option for the sales plan of "Gripen". Among the few customers of the Gripen, the Czech Republic and Hungary have chosen the method of "leasing" from Sweden, each equipped with 14 Gripen CD types.
The Thai Air Force, which bought 18 (1 crashed) "Gripen", can also play posing.
Therefore, if the Philippines can also reach an agreement with Sweden on the purchase of the "Gripen" to use the "lease" model, then it cannot be ruled out that the Philippines can also purchase more than a dozen aircraft to fill the façade like Thailand. Although the "Gripen" is only a single-engine light aircraft, it is a serious fourth-generation and a half-generation main fighter, which is far more on the table than the South Korean FA-50 and the Brazilian "Tucano" two training aircraft. Moreover, after the Philippine Air Force is equipped with the "Gripen", it will also have some psychological advantages because the Thai Air Force has used the older "Gripen" CD to "defeat" the J-11 of the Chinese Air Force with a large advantage, so when facing Chinese fighters in the future, it may have some psychological advantages because it is equipped with the latest E F type.
However, if the Philippines really wants to rely on the "Gripen" to support its invasion and occupation of China's islands and reefs, then the Chinese Air Force will not hesitate to carefully "tune" it!