Saab JAS 39 Gripen

Updated: October 2026 – A small gray jet rolls forward, the single nozzle glowing, and after a short run it lifts off and climbs away steeply. From below you see a delta wing with small foreplanes ahead of it – but only one engine. That is very likely a Saab JAS 39 Gripen. The Swedish combat jet is more compact than the Eurofighter and Rafale, but it doesn’t only fly in Scandinavia: Hungary and the Czech Republic operate it in the middle of Europe, and it is a regular guest at airshows. Here you learn how to identify it with confidence, how the C/D and E/F versions differ and where you have the best chances of a sighting.

What is the Saab JAS 39 Gripen?

The Gripen is a single-engine multirole combat aircraft from the Swedish group Saab. The three letters in the name describe the concept: Jakt (fighter) for air combat, Attack for attacks on ground and sea targets, Spaning (reconnaissance) for reconnaissance. Instead of building a separate variant for every task, as Sweden had previously done with the Saab 37 Viggen, a single aircraft was supposed to do it all. “Gripen” is the Swedish word for griffin.

Development began in the late 1970s with studies for a successor to the Viggen and the Saab 35 Draken. In 1982 Sweden ordered five prototypes and an initial series of 30 aircraft. The first prototype took off on December 9, 1988 in Linköping. The first years were bumpy: as early as February 1989 a prototype was lost on landing, and in 1993 a production aircraft crashed during a display over Stockholm. The cause in both cases was the flight control software, which was subsequently reworked. In 1996 the Swedish Air Force put the type into service.

Technically the Gripen relies on the same basic principle as the Eurofighter and Rafale: a delta wing with canards ahead of it, a deliberately unstable layout and a digital flight control system that keeps the aircraft stable. The big difference lies in size and propulsion. The Gripen is smaller, lighter and has only one engine. That keeps operating costs low and was a central argument for many export customers.

Built for road bases and conscripts

To understand the Gripen you have to know the Swedish defense doctrine. During the Cold War, Sweden planned to disperse its combat aircraft in wartime across numerous improvised runways, including straight, widened sections of ordinary country roads. An aircraft for this concept has to manage with short runways, be robust and be supportable by small teams.

That is exactly what the Gripen is designed for. It takes off and lands over comparatively short distances, and on landing the canards also serve as air brakes. In Sweden, maintenance and refueling are partly done by conscripts with few special tools. For the Gripen E, Saab quotes a turnaround to restore readiness for air combat missions of about 15 minutes, and up to 25 minutes for heavier loads.

For you as a spotter that means: Swedish exercises with road bases produce unusual subjects – combat jets between trees, on asphalt with a centerline. Such dates are rarely announced far in advance, though.

The versions: A/B, C/D and E/F

The Gripen has developed in three major generations. As with many combat jets, the even letters stand for two-seaters.

Version	Type	What defines it
JAS 39A	Single-seater	First series for Sweden, Swedish cockpit labeling, not for export
JAS 39B	Two-seater	Trainer based on the A, without internal cannon, with a smaller tank
JAS 39C	Single-seater	Glass cockpit with larger color displays, aerial refueling probe, NATO-compatible weapons and data link; today’s standard
JAS 39D	Two-seater	Fully combat-capable two-seater version of the C, without internal cannon
JAS 39E	Single-seater	New generation: longer fuselage, GE F414G, AESA radar, IRST, more fuel and payload
JAS 39F	Two-seater	Two-seater version of the E, without internal cannon; mainly for Brazil

Sweden has either retired most of the older A and B aircraft or converted them to the C/D standard. Some of these converted aircraft later went on lease to Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Gripen C/D

The C/D is the version you see by far most often in Europe. It is powered by the Volvo RM12, a Swedish development of the American GE F404. Without afterburner it delivers about 54 kilonewtons, with afterburner about 80 kilonewtons. The aerial refueling probe is retractable and barely visible when stowed.

Gripen E/F

The Gripen E is far more than an update. Saab enlarged the airframe, moved the main landing gear into a fairing under the fuselage and significantly increased internal fuel capacity. The GE F414G from GE Aerospace delivers up to 98 kilonewtons with afterburner. Add an AESA radar, an infrared search and track sensor (IRST) and ten external stores stations. The first Gripen E flew on June 15, 2017 in Linköping. The official handover to the Swedish Air Force took place in October 2025; Brazil received its first production aircraft as early as 2022.

The features that are enough to identify it

Among European combat jets with canards, the Gripen is the smallest. Three looks are usually enough.

In the end, the serial confirms the type and the country. National markings help as well: Sweden wears blue circles with three yellow crowns, Hungary red-white-green triangles, the Czech Republic the blue-white-red roundel with wedges. You can look up individual serial numbers best in a military database like Scramble.

Gripen, Eurofighter, Rafale or F-16?

Canards and delta make the Gripen easy to mix up at a distance. The finder helps you narrow it down.

You will hardly mix up the Gripen with the F-35 Lightning II: it has two canted vertical stabilizers and a conventional horizontal stabilizer. The comparison is still interesting, because the F-35A will replace the Gripen in the Czech Republic. In the Czech Republic the Gripen replaced the MiG-21; in Hungary, MiG-29s and MiG-21s flew before. The guide Identifying fighter jets in Europe gives a broad overview.

Who flies the Gripen?

By 2025, according to reference works, more than 280 Gripens had been delivered. The following overview shows the users as of October 2026; numbers are rounded or limited to publicly known orders.

Country	Status (as of October 2026)
Sweden	Largest user, fleet of C/D; 60 Gripen E ordered, deliveries under way since 2025
Hungary	14 leased C/D since 2006/2007, plus four more Cs; takeover into ownership after the lease ends in 2026 agreed
Czech Republic	14 leased C/D since 2005, use until probably 2027 with an extension option; F-35A ordered as successor
South Africa	C/D fleet (South African Air Force)
Thailand	C/D fleet; first Gripen E/F ordered in August 2025
Brazil	Gripen E/F as F-39E/F, first production aircraft since 2022; parts of production in the country
United Kingdom	One leased Gripen D with the test pilot school ETPS
Colombia	Contract for 17 Gripen E/F signed in November 2025
Ukraine	Contract for 16 Gripen E in June 2026; Sweden also wants to hand over used C/D

In Brazil, Saab works closely with Embraer; part of the F-39E is built there in the country. In March 2026 Brazil unveiled the first aircraft built domestically.

Sweden

The Swedish Air Force (Flygvapnet) currently operates the Gripen mainly with three wings: F 7 in Såtenäs on Lake Vänern, F 17 in Ronneby in southern Sweden and F 21 in Luleå in the far north. In addition there are test aircraft at Saab in Linköping, where final assembly is also located. Since Sweden joined NATO in March 2024, Swedish Gripens have been seen more often at exercises and deployments in alliance territory.

Hungary

The Hungarian Gripens fly from Kecskemét southeast of Budapest. With them, Hungary regularly takes part in NATO air policing, for example in the Baltics. If you are in Budapest anyway – say for scheduled traffic at Budapest Airport – you can plan a side trip to airshows in Kecskemét, if one is taking place.

Czech Republic

The Czech Gripens are stationed at Čáslav east of Prague. The 211th Tactical Squadron there bears the tiger in its crest and is active at the NATO Tiger Meet – accordingly there are Czech Gripens with spectacular tiger special liveries. Whether the Czech aircraft are currently wearing a special livery changes from year to year. You will find background in the posts NATO Tiger Meet and NATO Tiger Meet and military special liveries.

Spotting tips for the Gripen

There is no Gripen base in Germany. You still have realistic chances: at airshows, at multinational exercises and on deployments, when Hungarian, Czech or Swedish aircraft stop over at German air bases.

Airshows

The Gripen is represented at many European airshows, often with a solo display that shows off its agility. Good opportunities include:

• the Royal International Air Tattoo at Fairford, where Gripens are regularly seen in the flying display or the static
• the AIRPOWER in Zeltweg in Austria, to which neighboring countries like Hungary and the Czech Republic also send jets
• the NATO Tiger Meet, when the Czech Tigers take part

Airshows in Europe gives you an overview of further dates. How to get good pictures there is explained in Photographing airshows.

At military airfields

Military spotting means: be patient and follow the rules. Stay on public land, heed restricted-area signs and photography bans – in other countries the regulations can be stricter than in Germany. The basics are in the article Photographing military airfields: the rules. Before a trip to Kecskemét, Čáslav or Swedish bases, also look up the local regulations.

Photo tips

How that works with the light is explained in the guide Planning sun position for your photo spot. With Planetrack you have the sun position planner right at the spot, and with weather, wind and runway direction at the airport you can estimate the takeoff direction.

The Gripen in a museum

If you want to see the history of Swedish combat jets in full, head to the Flygvapenmuseum in Linköping (Swedish Air Force Museum); you will find tips for visiting Malmen airfield at the spot Flygvapenmuseum at Linköping airfield. The predecessors Draken and Viggen are there, and the city is also the home of Gripen production. If you are lucky, you may even see test flights over Linköping.

Common mix-ups and how to rule them out

Legacy and family: from Draken to Red Hawk

The Gripen stands in a long line of Swedish in-house developments. The Draken with its striking double delta flew from the 1950s, and the Viggen brought canards on a delta wing from the 1970s – though considerably larger and more rigidly installed. The Gripen took over this idea and combined it with digital flight control. Besides combat jets, Saab also builds civil aircraft such as the Saab 340 and is involved in the development of the jet trainer Boeing T-7A Red Hawk.

Conclusion

The Saab JAS 39 Gripen is the small, efficient representative of the European canard-delta jets: one engine, short runways, quick ground times. For spotters in central Europe it is a rewarding target because it doesn’t fly on your doorstep but remains within reach – in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Sweden and at the big airshows. With the Gripen E a new generation is joining, which you tell from the older C by the landing gear and the IRST sensor.