“The decision is up to Kiev”: Sweden announced its readiness to provide Ukraine with Gripen fighters
Date: 2024-07-11 Author: Кирило Загоруйко Categories: MILITARY ASSISTANCE
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström stressed that his country is ready to provide Kyiv with Gripen fighters in the future, and explained why the process of their transfer was suspended.
“We must understand that Ukraine was given the opportunity to receive F-16 fighters, of which, of course, there are more in the NATO family. After all, more countries have F-16s than Gripen fighters. This has nothing to do with the decision of the Swedish government. This decision was made because Ukraine came to the conclusion that it was too much to have two fighter systems at the same time - both the F-16 and the Gripen," he said in an interview with Voice of America.
Billstrom reminded us that we are talking about systems.
"It's not just about getting the planes and training the pilots. These are complex systems and introducing two of them at the same time would be too difficult. But that doesn't mean Sweden isn't open to continuing with the Gripens fighters if and when the F-16 program is completed. Again, this is a matter for Ukraine, not the Swedish government. Since we could not continue with the Gripens fighters due to the arrival of the F-16, we decided to provide Ukraine with other capabilities that Sweden has, and we transferred the ASC 890 surveillance systems to Ukraine." - the minister emphasized.
According to him, this means that "they provide something that Ukraine can use in coordination with F-16 aerial fighters and this will give Ukraine the ability to better conduct air combat, surveillance and control of air combat."
He assured that Sweden could still be open to supplying Gripens in the future.
"Yes. This is just a practical matter. You know, air fighter systems are very complex, and F-16s are with more NATO partners than Gripen fighters. I would say that the F-16, which is now being introduced into the Ukrainian Air Force, will provide you great and important opportunities. When this is realized, then we will be able to start talking about Gripen air fighters. Both Sweden and the Swedish government have no restrictions on these discussions after the introduction of the F-16. But this decision was made by the Ukrainian government, not the Swedish one." , - added the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
