Re: There's a great alternative to the F35
You forgot to add that you can buy 4 Gripens for the price of 1 F35.
ComicalEngineer,
You really can't. And it's not even close. In fact an F-35 is possibly cheaper than a Gripen. When Norway selected F-35, they said that Gripen was more expensive, as you can imagine SAAB disagreed! Most of the Western fighters are pretty similar cost-wise, I think the big exception is the F-18, and maybe the F-16 - although that keeps getting upgrades, and so the costs keep creeping up again.
The US budget office said that the F-35A was costing them $75m (I think that's now gone up to $80m). Estimates for the Gripen seem to wander between $65-$85m. However the F-35 comes without engine, and those have been getting more expensive, due to upgrades and shortages, so the flyaway cost of an F-35A now is probably $90-$95m? The Eurofighter and Rafale both seem to be round-about the $100m mark, along with the F-15EX (maybe a bit more).
However, operating costs are a different matter. And there, the Gripen is king. From public estimates, you get about $5,000 an hour operating costs. The Rafale and Eurofighter are about $20k an hour, and F-35 is up around the high $30k mark, and operating costs are not falling, as promised. Partly because not enough was invested in spares production, and now we're amazingly, short of spare parts. Who'd-a-thunk it? Again F-18 are nice and cheap to run - that really does seem to be a highly capable, and affordable aircraft.
Part of Gripen's advantage here is being physically smaller. Against F-35 it also doesn't have to worry about stealth coatings, or an absurdly complicated supply chain. Although that complexity is partly deliberate, and what makes it a joint strike fighter. Even the US don't completely control F-35's supply chain, and various countries make bits that are vital to its operation, so that if anyone does get cut off, the whole thing could fall apart - making everyone's F-35s useless.
So you can operate Gripen for much less money. It's going to cost much less over its lifetime, though probably about the same at the start. But it's also less capable. And as stealth aircraft become more common, that will probably become more important. In ten years time the aircraft world is going to look very different again. There'll be new 6th gen (if that even means anything) aircraft coming into operations, Russia ought to have a decent number of stealth aircraft (admittedly of dubious quality) in squadron service, and are selling them to Algeria. Trump may have sold F-35 to the Saudis (and others) though he'll have to get a move on before he loses control of Congress. China has got two frontline stealth aircraft now - and many more in development - and once their new shiny comes along, they may be willing to sell to allies, like Pakistan. Hell, they might even be willing to sell to Russia - if SU-57 really is as bad as some people think. Ten years is not a long time in military procurement terms nowadays. People are buying F-35 for a reason.
