Russia's Best Fighters Are USELESS Against This Sweden Jet

[00:00:00]On paper, [music] the Gripen loses to Russia's Sue fighters in almost every category. Yet, this small Swedish jet may be the aircraft Russia fears the most. Why? The answer goes back to why the Gripen was built in the first place.

[00:00:12]It was designed specifically for an uneven fight against Soviet Sue27s over the Baltic Sea. When the Soviet Union unveiled its newest fighter at the Paris Air Show in 1989, Western aviation experts were [music] stunned. A representative from Macdonald Douglas called the Sue27 extremely impressive while CEO of Dao Serge Dao admitted the Soviet Union is becoming a real competitor for us. [music] The arrival of the Sue27 changed the game. But Sweden found [music] its answer. The Yas 39 Grieen military exercises showed that Green [music] squadrons could survive the initial assault and keep fighting long enough for NATO reinforcements to arrive. More than three decades have passed. Now the battlefield [music] is Ukraine. Inside Swedish Gripen's cockpit sit Ukrainian pilots who can't count on NATO's air power coming to [music] the rescue. Their opponents are Russia's Sue35s and potentially the country's most advanced fighter, the Sue57. If you compare pure [music] technical specifications, the Gripen comes up short in almost every major category.

[00:01:14][music] It's smaller and lighter because that's exactly what Sweden's defense doctrine demanded. Russia's [music] Sue fighters have greater range, a higher service ceiling, more powerful engines, and a larger combat [music] radius. But paper tigers don't win wars. So, what would a real encounter between the Gripen and Russia's [music] frontline fighters actually look like? And will the realities of Ukraine's battlefield change the aircraft's effectiveness?

[00:01:37]That's exactly what we're about to break down. And at the end of the video, we'll look at the Gripen's first potential combat missions in Ukrainian skies. You won't want to miss it. But before we get to its weapons, we need to understand the tactics the Grieen was built around.

[00:01:51]After all, there's a huge difference between defending the Baltic while waiting for NATO support and fighting over Ukraine, where Russian Awax aircraft, groundbased radar networks, and longrange SAMs control a large portion of the airspace. Years ago, Swedish military planners came to a simple conclusion. If the Soviet Union knows where all your aircraft are, the war could be over before the first dog fight even begins. So the Swedes turned the entire concept upside down. They made their air force invisible while it was still on the ground. They turned the entire country into one giant air base.

[00:02:24]Highways became runways where fighters could land, refuel, rearm, and take off again. That's exactly why the Swedes made the Gripen so small. And that's precisely where its biggest advantage comes from. If you like this idea, hit the like button to support both our channel and the brilliant Swedish engineers who came up with it. Thanks to its compact size and low weight, the Gripen needs nothing more than a stretch of highway about 800 m long, right in the middle of a forest. In fact, it's arguably the only modern fighter in the world that could comfortably take off from the access road leading to Camp David. To support this strategy, Swedenbuilt camouflaged parking areas for grapens in forests alongside highways across the country along with underground fuel storage sites and hidden ammunition depots. [music] There are actually more of these locations than there are aircraft. Each jet is serviced by a small mobile crew consisting of one professional technician and five or six conscripts.

[00:03:20]So what does this strategy achieve? If the Russians don't know where your fighters are at any given moment, they can't destroy them. Their only options are either to spend enormous resources trying to find and strike them or to cancel the attack altogether because the chances of success are simply too uncertain. [music] But Ukraine isn't Sweden. There are no underground shelters spread across the country.

[00:03:40]Instead, Russian radars positioned along the border can scan hundreds of kilometers into Ukrainian airspace. So, what happens then? Well, here's the surprising part. Ukraine's doctrine has in many ways gone even further than the Swedish concept. That's why on the very first day of the full-scale invasion, [music] most Russian missile strikes hit empty Ukrainian air bases. Dozens of missiles, virtually zero results. That became one of the key reasons Russia's Blitzkrieg failed. And it's also the main reason Russian aircraft still can't operate freely over Ukraine. So, how and where do the Ukrainians hide their fighter jets? Ukraine's success with this strategy was made possible by an unexpected advantage, its Soviet legacy.

[00:04:20]During the Cold War, the Soviet Union turned Ukraine into its primary air fortress against NATO. Dozens of air bases with extensive infrastructure were built across the country. When Ukraine gained independence, it was forced to give up its strategic bombers and nuclear missiles. Over the years, the Air Force also shrank as aging. Obsolete aircraft were retired from service. But the airfields never disappeared. They were still there. And more importantly, there were far more air bases than the number of aircraft Ukraine still had.

[00:04:49]That's why after Russia seized Crimea in 2014, Ukraine began modernizing this network and bringing reserve airfields back into service. So when Russia launched its massive missile strikes against Ukrainian air bases in February 2022, the fighters had already taken off and scattered across the country like the wind. At one of the dispersal airfields we relocated to, there wasn't even a boarding ladder available. So I climbed onto the jet from the rear, first stepping onto the exhaust nozzle, then walking along the fuselage to reach the cockpit. That's how we lived through the first 5 days. No sleep, no rest. You just kept flying, mission after mission, sorty after sorty. That's how the war began for us. In other words, while Sweden spent decades practicing dispersed operations during exercises, Ukraine's air force had to execute the same concept in real combat. But Sweden's highway strategy also proved useful. Even before the full-scale invasion, Ukraine's Sue27s and Mig 29s, the fighters that formed and still form the backbone of the Ukrainian Air Force, regularly practiced landing on public highways. So Ukraine has both an extensive network of air bases and countless stretches of road that can serve as improvised runways. Ukrainian pilots have already become masters of guerilla style air operations while flying heavy Soviet fighter jets from the previous generation. Now imagine what happens when those same pilots get their hands on the Green, a fighter jet that was designed from day one for exactly this [music] kind of guerrilla warfare. But surviving is only half the battle. What happens when the Grien has to face Russia's most modern fighter jets [music] in actual combat before we break down what a real encounter between the Gripen and Russia's fighters would look like? Take a second to subscribe to the channel. We bring you in-depth coverage of modern weapons based on what they're actually doing on the battlefield. Thanks. We really appreciate it. Now then, modern air combat isn't a Hollywood dog fight. It starts off quietly, almost boring, but with every step, the tension [music] keeps building. So, let's break the engagement down phase by phase. Phase one, the radar duel. As you can see, the radars carried by Russia's SU fighter jets are roughly two to two and a half times more powerful than the Swedish system. Under ideal conditions, they can detect targets at distances of up to about 400 km. So, what do the Swedes do when they're facing aircraft with superior radar? They make their fighter harder to see. No, the gripe in CD that Ukraine is receiving isn't a stealth fighter, but Swedish engineers managed to reduce its radar cross-section to just 0.1 to 0.5 m. A big part of that comes from the extensive use of carbon fiber and composite materials, which make up roughly 1/3 of the aircraft's structure. Unlike metal, these materials reflect far less radar energy. On top of that, the leading edges of the wings, the vertical stabilizer, and the air intakes are coated with radar [music] absorbing paint. Even the canopy is covered with an ultra thin layer of gold that helps deflect [music] radar waves away from the aircraft. The rest of the reduction simply comes from one thing.

[00:07:44]The gripen is small. The result, a Russian radar that can detect [music] a large aircraft from as far as 400 km may not spot a much smaller grip until it's roughly 150 km away. Just like that, much of the radar advantage disappears.

[00:07:59]But here's the twist. In modern air combat, the pilot who turns on the radar first is often the one who loses. A fighter jet's radar pours out an enormous amount of energy. It's like switching on a flashlight in complete [music] darkness. You can see whatever you're pointing at, but everyone else can see you, too. That's why both the Gripen and Russia's Sue fighter jets are fully capable of launching attacks without ever turning on their own radars. The side that wins is usually the one that gets targeting information first. Both aircraft [music] can receive targeting data from external sensors.

[00:08:28]groundbased air defense radars, awax aircraft, or other fighter jets connected to the network. Once the target is illuminated, the fight enters.

[00:08:37]Phase [music] two, the missile launch.

[00:08:39]The missile duel between the Gripen and Russia's Sue fighter jets would be something the world has never seen before. On one side is the Meteor, Europe's most advanced air-to-air missile. On the other is Russia's R37M, known by NATO as the AA13 AX head, a missile that has dominated long range aerial engagements with near impunity.

[00:09:00]But these missiles can only be compared side by side in a chart. In reality, they represent two completely different philosophies of air combat. Here's how that fight would unfold. Imagine both the Grien and the Sue receive warning in time. Each pilot knows the other is there. The Russian Sue fires first because the R37M simply has the longer reach. The AA13 AX head is a half-tonon solid fuel missile. Its powerful booster accelerates it to nearly Mach 6 within seconds and lofts it to an altitude of more than 25 km. Once in the thin air of the stratosphere, it spends most of the flight gliding toward its target, conserving momentum. Only during the final approach, roughly 20 to 30 seconds before impact, does the missile activate its own active radar seeker to lock onto the target. [music] So, does the Gripen have any chance of surviving? Yes, but only if the pilot knows about the launch long before that radar seeker turns on.

[00:09:52]Because the axe head is fired from such extreme distances, the Gripen pilot's primary objective is simple. Force the missile to burn through all of its energy. The fighter jet immediately turns 180°, lights the afterburner, and dives toward the ground. Can the Gripen really pull off maneuvers like that?

[00:10:10]Absolutely. The aircraft uses a close coupled canard design with small forward control surfaces working together with the main wing. [music] This allows the jet to pitch its nose up instantly or snap into a completely different flight path in a fraction of a second. Unlike large heavy fighter jets, the Gripen can change direction almost instantly while bleeding far less energy during aggressive maneuvers. For Ukraine, there's another major advantage. The Gripen is exceptionally stable at extremely low altitude. Right where the air is thickest and turbulence is at its worst, the Swedish fighter jet feels completely at home. Built to withstand up to 9 GS, it can skim as low as about 30 m above the ground while remaining fully controllable. Trying to follow the Gripen, the much heavier axe head is forced into massive high G turns. Every violent correction drains more of the missile's speed and energy. By the time the exhausted missile reaches the target, the Grippen's electronic warfare system takes over. The aircraft carries one of the world's most capable built-in EW suites, the Saab Aexus. It's the Gripen's primary survival weapon. A Rexus floods the missile with digital noise, manipulates radar returns, and creates false phantom targets. Blinded and confused, the missile locks onto empty space, flies harmlessly past the aircraft, and falls to the ground.

[00:11:26]How do we know this works? Ukrainian pilots perform very similar defensive maneuvers on their MIG 29s whenever an AA13 ax head gets on their tail. They are the only pilots in the world using these tactics in actual combat. Until now, however, they had no comparable weapon to threaten the Russian Sue fighter jets that launch those missiles.

[00:11:46]Now imagine the situation reversed. A Gripen pilot gets an opportunity to fire a meteor after a Russian Sue enters the missiles engagement zone. The meteor works very differently. At shorter ranges, it locks onto the target immediately after launch and guides itself without requiring any outside assistance. But at maximum range, where the target has plenty of time to maneuver, the missile's own radar isn't enough. Instead, the Meteor receives continuous midcourse updates from external radars and other network sensors, allowing it to track every change in the target's position. Only during the final seconds does the missile activate its own radar seeker and complete the attack autonomously.

[00:12:21]So, can the Russian Sue escape the Meteor with aggressive maneuvering alone? Practically speaking, no. The Meteor was designed to maneuver. That's exactly what it does best. Conventional defensive moves, barrel rolls, hard turns, high G breakaways simply don't work against the Meteor. The Meteor boasts a massive no escape zone thanks to its throttable ramjet engine. The missile can accelerate to around Mach 4, then adjust its speed to maximize maneuverability. Unlike traditional solid fuel missiles that burn out early and coast toward the target, the Meteor keeps producing thrust almost all the way to impact. In other words, it chases its target like a hunting dog pursuing its prey. That's exactly what it was designed to do. So, how do we know?

[00:13:02]According to Global Defense Corp., during training in Alaska, a single grip reportedly achieved five simulated kills against US Air Force F16 Block 50s in close-range air combat. During the loyal arrow exercise in Sweden, one grapen flying as the aggressor intercepted three US Air Force F-15C's.

[00:13:21]The [music] result, two F-15 were considered shot down. The third escaped the Meteor's engagement envelope only because its enormous engine power allowed it to outrun the missile over Ukraine. The Grieen will also play the role of the aggressor. Its first priority will be hunting down the Russian aircraft that carry Kabib, the devastating winged glide bombs that have become one of Moscow's deadliest weapons. Day after day, Russian Sue35s and Sue34s fly high and fast, [music] releasing these bombs from roughly 70 km behind the front line. These heavy glide bombs flatten defensive positions, demolish reinforced concrete buildings, and erase entire city blocks. They kill not only Ukrainian soldiers at the front, but also civilians living far behind the battlefield. Ukraine's groundbased SAMs simply cannot engage Russian fighter jets effectively at those distances. To reach an aircraft operating 70 km behind the front, both the radar and the launcher would have to be positioned almost on the front line itself, where scarce western air defense systems immediately become targets for Russian lancet loitering munitions, artillery, and anti-radiation missiles.

[00:14:28]As a result, Russian pilots have operated with a sense of near impunity.

[00:14:32]But that dominance may be about to hit a wall. The combination of the Gripen and the Meteor offers a unique solution because of the exceptional capabilities of both the Gripen CD and the missile itself. [music] That's why this small Swedish fighter may be the aircraft Russia fears the most. And when Ukraine eventually receives the Gripen E, Russian fighter pilots may have to rethink their entire approach to air combat. But that's a story for another video. Let us know in the comments.

[00:14:56]Would you like to see a full video about the Gripen E, the newest version of Sweden's fighter, and how it could change the course of the war? And if you want to learn more about how America's F-16 are performing in a real war, their successes, their limitations, and the lessons learned, you'll find those videos in the playlists on your screen.

[00:15:14]Stay safe and support Ukraine.