Good news for the Swedish jet maker but must admit going from almost buying Su-30 Flanker to Gripen fighters seems like a big change. I wounder what changed in Thailand's air force needs because these two aircraft are vastly different.
Swedish-made jet fighters worth Bt34 billion


Air Force to get 12 jets The Cabinet yesterday approved a Defence Ministry proposal to purchase a squadron of Swedish-made jet fighters worth Bt34 billion to replace the F-5E aircraft of the Air Force.

Published on October 17, 2007


The first lot of six aircraft will be acquired together with equipment, parts and training from 2008 to 2012 at a cost of Bt19 billion. The second lot of six jets will be acquired for Bt15.4 billion from 2013 to 2017. The Air Force said its jet fighters had been in service for 30 years and it needed a modern model to raise its capability to the level of neighbouring countries.
Some Cabinet members questioned why the Air Force wanted to buy this particular model. The Air Force chief of staff said it would organise a press conference today about the purchase.
According to a news report on AviaMagazine.com, Thailand in July abandoned a plan made during the Thaksin Shinawatra administration to buy Russian SU-30 fighters and opted for the Swedish jets.
The ousted premier had planned to conduct a barter trade with Russia for the fighters but the deal never materialised as he was ousted in the military coup.
Piyanart Srivalo, The Nation

Link
http://nationmultimedia.com/2007/10/...s_30052733.php

Gripens are wonderful jets, as are all Saabs.

Originally Posted by The Other Guy

Gripens are wonderful jets, as are all Saabs.

Agreed. The principal fighters of Sweden over the past 50 years have been the Saab Viggen, Drakken, and Gripen, all excellent airplanes.

Unfortunately while they are impressive almost none of them have ever seen any real combat, unlike their French, British, Russian, American and Chinese competitors.

That has always been a problem with Swedish Military equipment.

I don't really know much about Swedish Military equipment what types of problems to they have. The only knock I remember reading about this jet is maybe the engine could have a little more thrust or power.

Do you know as far I can find out a lot of the newer Russian, French, and Chinese equipment isn't battle tested. I can't seem to find any Russian Flanker air to air combat kills at all. The Eritrea Flanker kill against a Russian made Mig-29 might be it's only air to air combat to date. Some have said that the information released on that isn't confirmed either. There is a story on ACIG.org about it if you wanted to read it.

The Mirage-2000 had seen combat in the Gulf War+Afghanistan and Rafale is seeing action as we speak in Afghanistan as we speak. Not to mention older Mirages have seen action in South America, in the Middle East and with India+Pakistan.

Hi mmarsh
I'm sorry I wasn't clear I meant air to air combat the Mirage 2000 doesn't have air to air kills that I could find. I thought a Mirage 2000 shot down some sort of Serb aircraft and I'm looking for that now. And yes Mirage 2000s are marketing targets for the Rafale currently in Afghanistan. Older Mirages have tons of combat under there belts big time. Mirage III/V/50 are some of favorite aircraft and many are still flying. In a way France owned the fighter world in that time period they had a hot performers and they were very battle proven.