:: Anatolian Eagle 2026 ::

[Gripen9]

I was talking about your snake emoji, not the actual sqn. Green Cobra instead of Viper.

Yes that looks more like a Cobra then a pit viper.

 

[Yasser76]

Yeah, but its not as if its a 5th Gen jet or something. Its a regular 4/4.5 Gen with a decent Radar & a pretty good BVR.

I mean i'd have the same opinion (if) we had the J-35. Keep that bird far away from everything.

Yes, 4.5th gen, but still massively unknown in exercises outside the West. For sure they will have technical knowledge of this bird but how it performs in the air against NATO aircraft is something we do not need to gift them. Half these c**ts like the Germans and French have done everything to hold us back.

 

[Trailer23]

Yes, 4.5th gen, but still massively unknown in exercises outside the West. For sure they will have technical knowledge of this bird but how it performs in the air against NATO aircraft is something we do not need to gift them. Half these c**ts like the Germans and French have done everything to hold us back.

I didn't read the article, but there was recently some Excercise where the PLAAAF J-10 gave an ass-whopping to a EuroFighter.

 

[Yasser76]

I didn't read the article, but there was recently some Excercise where the PLAAAF J-10 gave an ass-whopping to a EuroFighter.

Yeah, against the Qataris. They really have come out as a dependable Pak ally, pretty sure all the exercises they allowed us against Rafales with our JF-17s and J-10Cs over the years helped us during May 7th

 

[Trailer23]

This year, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Pakistan, and Hungary are "reportedly" participating in the exercise.

Note: Hungarian Air Force (only) operates 18 JAS 39 Gripen.

Q. Any recollection if PAF has ever gone into any Excersise (other than Red Flag ) against the Gripen?

 

[Metal 0-1]

Holy simulated BFM glazers

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[SBD-3]

This year, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Pakistan, and Hungary are "reportedly" participating in the exercise.

Note: Hungarian Air Force (only) operates 18 JAS 39 Gripen.

Q. Any recollection if PAF has ever gone into any Excersise (other than Red Flag ) against the Gripen?

As far as I understand it, the Hungarian Gripens are still C/D-generation aircraft rather than the newer Gripen E/Fs now entering Brazilian service. Hungary’s fleet has received substantial modernization—most notably the MS20 and MS20 Block 2 upgrades, which improve the PS-05/A radar, Link 16 connectivity, IFF and weapons integration, including capabilities such as Meteor and IRIS-T—but these upgrades do not turn the C/D into a Gripen E/F. The underlying airframe, propulsion, fuel capacity and overall architecture remain fundamentally different.

That distinction matters when considering what additional capability Hungarian Gripens would actually bring to the table. If the discussion is specifically about acquiring or deploying these aircraft alongside a more modern fighter fleet, their strongest argument would probably be as a relatively mature, lower-end/high-availability platform for air policing, defensive counter-air and routine NATO commitments rather than as a substitute for a newer-generation fighter.

That said, I wouldn't dismiss them as offering only a DCA advantage. The upgraded Hungarian C/Ds retain a useful multirole package, including modernized radar, NATO-standard datalinks, improved communications and access to modern air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons. They can therefore contribute to networked air defence, interception, limited strike and other secondary missions. The question is really whether those capabilities justify introducing or retaining another C/D-based fleet when the E/F represents a considerably more capable growth path.

There is also a less obvious issue with the Gripen ecosystem: there simply isn't a large global pool of Gripens available for regular international exercises and operational interoperability outside Sweden. Sweden remains by far the largest C/D operator, while the other established C/D users operate relatively small fleets—Hungary now has 18, the Czech Republic 14, South Africa 26 and Thailand roughly a squadron's worth.

Brazil will eventually change that picture to some extent. Its original programme covers 36 Gripen E/Fs—28 E and eight F—with 11 delivered as of June 2026, making Brazil one of the most important future Gripen operators. But geography matters. Brazil is thousands of kilometres from the Asian theatre, and the cost and logistics of routinely deploying Brazilian fighters to Asian multinational exercises are obviously much greater than moving aircraft between neighbouring Asian or European operators. Brazil therefore isn't likely to become a convenient, regularly available source of Gripen interoperability for Asian air forces simply because it operates a larger fleet.

That leaves the Asian and European Gripen operators themselves, and most of them simply don't operate enough aircraft to create the sort of large common-user ecosystem you get with types such as the F-16. Thailand, for example, currently operates one Gripen C/D squadron, although it has now ordered four Gripen E/Fs. Hungary has 18, while the Czech fleet is similarly small. These are useful operators and valuable exercise partners, but they don't constitute a huge pool of aircraft that can routinely generate massed Gripen-specific training opportunities across the region.

So, for me, the interesting issue isn't whether the Hungarian Gripens are "modern"—they certainly have received meaningful modernization—but whether their incremental capability, operating economics and ecosystem advantages are compelling enough to justify them over a newer-generation solution. If the requirement is primarily affordable air policing and DCA, an upgraded C/D can still make considerable sense. If the objective is to add a qualitatively new capability to an already sophisticated fighter force, however, the case is much less obvious.

There is an additional strategic consideration here: choosing a fighter isn't just choosing an airframe; it is also choosing an ecosystem of users, weapons, datalinks, training opportunities, logistics and interoperability. The Gripen has a capable and increasingly sophisticated ecosystem, but it remains a relatively small one. The E/F is expanding that ecosystem, with Sweden, Brazil, Colombia and Thailand now on the order book, but most of those fleets are still years away from becoming large operational forces.

That makes the Gripen particularly interesting as a high-quality niche fighter, but perhaps less compelling if the objective is to build a large, deeply interconnected multinational fighter ecosystem. In that respect, the question isn't simply "How capable is the Gripen?" It is also "How many Gripens are actually available, where are they based, and how often can their operators realistically train together?" Those are very different questions, and the answers aren't necessarily as favourable to Gripen as the aircraft's individual specifications might suggest.