Sweden’s Gripen fighter, the plane marketed as Europe’s most independent jet, runs on an American-made GE engine, and that fact just became a live national-security question. After Washington quietly throttled Ukraine’s Starshield satellite service and Portugal raised fears that an F-35 could be shut off remotely, we dig into exactly how much control Sweden has actually clawed back over the engine inside its own fighter.
Edit: I’m stupid, didn’t realise that the video actually mentions this specifically. Although I think that comparing the afterburning thrust is a bit off without also mentioning that the non-afterburning thrust, the one used most of the time, is actually higher for the Eurojet
While I do not mean to imply that military fighter jet engines can just be trivially hotswapped, I wonder if the Eurofighter’s engine could be adapted as a replacement? The Eurofighter itself has two because it’s a much larger aircraft, but the individual engines are actually pretty close in dimensions, weight, and performance
Afaik SAAB is looking into alternatives (GM is rumored).
Someone on the fediverse explained to me, that the jet is basically engineered around a certain engine, why swapping is a pain in the arse.
But I’m sure European companies (GM, Rafael, Airbus, Leonardo, …) could find a solution for future models within a reasonable timeframe.
The Gripen has already had one engine replacement as well, the Gripen E has a different one from prior versions. That’s actually part of the problem - the old one was an American design built on licence in Sweden, but the new one is just American
Really sad they did not choose they Eurojet engine, the Eurofighter is also using. That was actually seriously considered.
volvo aerospace built the engine on license for like 25 years, so the brits probably got the plans when they purchased it.
Not the latest engine though. That’s a fully US engine.
how hard can it be
