Swedish JAS 39 Gripen fighter jet – what does it do against 1500 Russian combat aircraft

Strengthening combat aviation is Ukraine's new number one priority. In other, non-war times, this would have been a cause for sarcasm. After all, the state already has three priorities – missiles, ammunition, and drones – and a bunch of unsolvable problems with each of them.

For example, we can already predict that in 2025 there will be no 3000 promised by the president Volodymyr Zelenskyy missiles. The publicized flamingo missile unexpectedly codified as a drone, which is an official recognition of the futility of the intensive "missile" information campaign. It was only in the second half of the year that the months-long problems with the quality of mines and ammunition were overcome.

And only the lazy have not talked about the "zoo of drones" – a single center for coordinating the development and production of all unmanned systems has not yet been finalized.

Against this background, on October 22, it became known that Sweden would sell Ukraine 100-150 (at least a hundred) modern jAS 39 Gripen E fighters – Zelenskyy signed a pre-contract declaration of intent with Sweden.

How much do they cost and how will they help counter Russia, which has about 1,500 combat aircraft, even if up to 30% of them are not in the best technical condition?