Now that Sweden has rolled out the advanced Gripen demonstrator, they are aggressively marketing it to Norway.

Among other things, Sweden is offering co-development on some of the technologies, and a promise to upgrade their Gripens to this standard should Norway buy them.

My money is still on the steamroller that is the JSF, at least until deliveries start showing late and more expensive than previously anticipated, my guess is a price tag 2/3 that of the F-22 ($120 million a pop) as versus the $50-60 million for the Gripen.

At that point, the Gripen will look very attractive to countries that are taking a wait and see approach.

Yep, the Gripen is my fighter obsession right now. In an age of ever spiralling costs, it’s half a generation ahead of the F-16 at around the same prime price, though even with the additional fuel and thrust, it will be smaller and lighter.