Listening to the vid it sounded like the sky would fall in if they were sending F-16s.
But it can be used from the road, and the turn around doesn’t seem that bad.
Short runways - the hook is used for arrested landings on short or highways according to the -1 presuming they are given the cable system to string across it.
No, it can’t. I’m not trying to either 
I got hung up in your comment that they can’t have it both ways. I’m still unclear what can’t be had both ways. I thought you meant ease of maintenance, since that’s what you wrote about just before.
Also, line maintenance is a big part of turnarounds.
Yes, of course it’s a sales pitch. It’s a big feature of the Gripen system. It’s designed to be maintained by concscript mechanics with very little training. Very little, compared to an aircraft technician. We do serve a full year, but we started to work on aircraft already after a month of tech school.
The hook uses pneumatic pressure from the emergency gear air tank. As it isn’t intended for repeated use, many countries -like Norway- used brake chutes on their F-16.
Look, I’m not downplaying the F-16 at all. It’s a fine and versatile weapons platform. All I’m saying that when it comes down to service operability, ease of maintenance and high sortie rates with fast turnarounds, the Gripen has got that too, in spades…
Oh, yes! I seriously doubt someone will send them Gripens.
Its my understanding that the F16 was designed to be cheap (originally) to purchase and fairly easy to maintain and upgrade.
Whereas Gripen never really had upgrades factored into the airframe but serviceability and conscript level line maintainence and repair in remote locations while giving a higher mission availability and turnaround time than the competition.
Can we all agree that gripen would absolutely smash an F16 in a one on one. Especially the newer heavier vipers
Think of the Gripen as a weapons system that can integrate with ordinance from many different producers and use any com link you have access to, just by software and a few avionics boxes.
And then you have the mid service upgrades, the C/D and E upgrades…
It’s designed for versatility and to be sold to any user, regardless of affiliation.
Well, that -again- depends on a lot of factors 
But the Gripen has faired well against RNoAF and USAF Falcons in the Arctic Challenge Exercise and Red Flag.
Agreed, i may not have explained that as well as i could of.
I don’t know anything about the Grippen. Same goes for the F-16, A-10, F-35, etc. All of them are black boxes to me. But I know enough about America to not judge the superiority of our hardware based on the sales of our hardware. After all, military orders are just an extension of foreign policy. The Grippen sells well despite Sweden’s comparatively meek global presence. Countries buy their stuff to buy good stuff, not to win favor.
I meant no slight by that word, “meek”. The world could use a bunch more meek and a hell of a lot less swagger. But swagger has its place. Joining NATO is swagger. Selling Grippens to Ukraine would be Senator Lyndon B Johnson levels of swagger, for both countries.
You are absolutely right. Even if SAAB makes good fighters, the Gripen is on par with the newer F-16 and F-18, in terms of mission capability. In the end, it’s not a F-35. Nor does it cost as much
So there’s a bang for the buck consideration in there as well, naturally.
Swedens military export laws has hampered sales of the Gripen as well. But judging from Swedens willingness to support the Ukraine, this may not apply to them
Most F-16s were never built with chutes so unless they are easy to retrofit I was not expecting to see it going to Ukraine…not to say they wont get them.
ROUTINE ARRESTMENT LIMIT - 135 KNOTS (*156 KNOTS).
A planned event. Operational conditions are such that each landing requires arrestment. Such
operational conditions include operating from highways or from runways that are too short for
normal landings.
My point was that countries that relied on short field ops and/or slippery conditions, opted for a chute, instead of relying on the hook. Easier to just replace the chute container…
Then again, the Gripen needs neither hook, nor chute
So I can understand why someone considers the Gripen a good choice for the Ukraine (not that they will have the choice, but if they did).
It’s adaptable, versatile, easy to maintain and robust.
And its an absolute monster
There are not a whole lot of surplus Gripens just standing around though, only ~300 exist compared to 4000+ F16’s and 700+ Warthogs.
No, the whole thing is a ’what if’ scenario…
Well, it’s named after a creature that is half eagle, half lion…
Slightly related: DCS needs an ‘invisible runway’ object, place on a stretch of road in this case, complete with an airportId for lua scripts. Akin to invisible FARPs? Then my AI wingman can land with me.
The cold war server does something like that…