Sweden and Ukraine signed a letter of intent for a future contract on the purchase of up to 150 modern Gripen E fighter jets to bolster the Ukrainian Air Force.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Zelensky are meeting in the city of Linkoping, home to the defense company Saab, which produces Gripen fighter jets and other arms.
kyivindependent.com
What's interesting about this contract is that the first E model Gripens would take approximately 3 years to arrive in Ukraine, at a cost of approximately $150 million usd per unit. Meanwhile, however, a small care of Ukrainian pilots have been working in Sweden to familiarize themselves with the Gripen. The prevailing thought is that as more E model Gripens are delivered to Sweden
in 2026, that the Swedes may be in a position to send 10'ish older C model Gripens to Ukraine, which would form the foundation of their future squadrons.
Regardless, this is more of a long term move and could cost upwards of $15 Billion usd (if all 150 Gripens are procured). Ukraine cannot finance those units on their own, therefore, they'd need substantial help from their allies and, likely, significant funds from frozen Russian assets would have to be unlocked.
In the short term, there are two more important factors when it comes to building up Ukraine's Air Force.
1. France has another 15-20 Mirage- 2000 fighter jets that it will be in position to sell to / donate to Ukraine starting in 2026, as they receive newer replacements. However, in order for Ukraine to be able to take advantage of them, they need enough pilots trained to fly and operate them. There are batches of Ukrainian pilots as we speak, training throughout Europe, Canada, Britain and USA, however, France is the only country training them to fly the Mirage-2000, and they're rumored to only be able to support the training of 12-15 Ukrainian pilots per year. That number must be expanded significantly if Ukraine is going to be able to operate a fleet of 25-30 Mirage-2000 fighters.
2. While F-16 training continues to pick up pace at 4 locations internationally, Ukraine needs to buy significant spare parts from the U.S. and Europe. Ukraine's fleet will grow to approximately 40-50 jets in 2026 (with 75+ pledged in the medium term). While more pilots are needed, the West is doing all they can in that area. That said, to keep the fleet war ready at a 75%+ clip, Ukraine will need hundreds of technicians and significant quantity of spare parts. Luckily, USA is continuing to retire many F-16 units each year. 62 C/D model F-16s will be retired from U.S. service in 2026 alone, with similar numbers scheduled for retirement in subsequent years. Many of those aircraft would serve as excellent "parts donors" for Ukraine's growing fleet, allowing them to keep sortee rate high as they are a key part of both Ukraine's offensive action in the East and Ukraine's layered air defense infrastructure.
and USA 
are preparing a contract that will see USA sell Ukraine 25 Patriot air defense systems, as well as hundreds of PAC-2/3 air defense missiles. It's a multi-year contract, with the systems set to arrive in varying quantities throughout the remainder of the decade. USA 
