BY : VINAY SHETTI FOR IDRW.ORG NEW SERVICE



Gripen Ng and Tejas flying together in a same mission over green fields of Punjab, or doing combat patrolling over the skies of capital city, might actually become a real time event in future, Gripen NG which is one of the front runners for supplying the 126 jets to Indian air force, it now seems to have impressed the Top guns in the Indian air force also, the new Gripen which the Saab Aerospace calls Gripen NG (Next Generation) which was recently rolled out on 23 April 2008 in the Saab Aerospace facility , it does not have an entirely new brand new look nor does it have any look of stealthy aircrafts like F-22 or F-35 but it does have some major improvements over its previous model (Gripen C/D) ,

New features which are the hard to ignore are the new massive General Electric F414G Engines which also powers the F/A-18E/F super hornets and which may also power India’s very own Tejas Block-2 fighter aircraft in future ,with 25% more thrust and new AESA radar, more weapons payload and more increase in range, aircraft had to go through very minimum change as the its landing gear had to be displaced from its undercarriage to its main wing pylons which freed up large space in the center fuselage section of the aircraft also provided room for extra fuel tanks ,Actually Gripen Ng as more unrefueled range then F-16 that’s 2,200 nautical miles ,use of Dual launch rails have also improved the aircraft's weapon carrying capacity from earlier 8 stations to 10 in the new current version .

Many Military Experts in India in past have dismissed Gripen as not the Strongest contender of the Indian Air forces M-MRCA programme which has been fought hard by American F-16 and F/A-18E/F along with Mig-35 from Russia and Euro fighter from Europe ,Experts have argued repeatedly that Countries own Tejas fighter aircraft will have similar capability when it joins Indian air force in 2011-12 time frame which is same exact time frame when jet selected from the M-MRCA programme are supposed to be delivered, but with the new Re-incarnation of the Gripen it might have a better chance of winning the M-MRCA requirements of the Indian air force.

Gripen Ng will not only bring array of new weapons and Avionics to Indian air force but will also be able to meet the Indian air force requirements ,it will also enable Hal to carry out its own future upgrades to the aircraft ,Saab which as promised to provide the Software code of the aircraft which will enable to integrate locally built Astra BVR AAM and other weapon systems ,if General Electric’s F414G Engines are selected for Tejas for the Block-2 version it will also enable Indian Air force maintain the commonality between the Two aircraft's engines