Swedish Air Force JAS 39 Gripen fighters practised the delicate art of landing on civilian highways during an exercise near Gothenburg, Sweden on 21 May 2024. Swedish fighter pilots learn how to land on civilian roads to give them extra flexibility in the event of a crisis. If airbases, airports or auxiliary landing strips are damaged or otherwise unavailable, the JAS 39 Gripen fighters can land on roads that have been deliberately engineered to accommodate landings by fighter jets. This deployed force is automatically less vulnerable to surprise attack and can operate closer to expected areas of enemy activity.
The Gripen is Sweden’s premier multirole fighter, with a reinforced landing gear that props the plane high enough above the asphalt to prevent debris from getting sucked down the jet intake. Once on the ground, the Gripens make use of a mobile forward arming and refuelling point (FARP), gassing up in a matter of minutes before taking off again. This is why Gripen was designed with STOL (Short Take-off and Landing) capabilities which allows the fighters to be airborne even during harsh conditions with a road strip of only 16×800 meters. The key to maximise operational effect is to make the fighters ready at all times.
Saab’s Gripen fighter, with its Short Take-off and Landing (STOL) capabilities, can take off from regular roads that are only 16m wide and 500m long, and land on a 600m long road. But just the STOL capabilities are not enough for effective operations at remote locations. Gripen has been designed to offer minimal turnaround time – only a few conscripts can refuel, re-arm and prepare the fighter for the next flight. Other factors that ensure easy maintenance of Gripen include hot refueling capability, quick replacement of LRUs, and internal sensors that alarm the pilot for a part replacement.
The Saab JAS 39 Gripen (The Griffin) is a light single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft manufactured by the Swedish aerospace and defence company Saab AB. The Gripen has a delta wing and canard configuration with relaxed stability design and fly-by-wire flight controls. Later aircraft are fully NATO interoperable. The multirole fighter aircraft has canard control surfaces that contribute a positive lift force at all speeds, while the generous lift from the delta wing compensates for the rear stabiliser producing negative lift at high speeds, increasing induced drag.
