On Wednesday, the government presented a new military support package to Ukraine. The support package is the largest so far from Sweden and will include, among other things, radar reconnaissance planes, tracked vehicles and artillery shells – but no Gripen planes.
– It is the plane that, according to experts, is the best suited to meet the Russian threat in the air, says SVT’s reporter Bengt Norborg,
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The reason why Ukraine has instead chosen to invest in the American F16 planes may be because the planes are available in more copies than the Gripen. But there is also an advantage with the Swedish fighter planes: the Gripen could also be used inside Russia, something that is not yet possible with the F16 plane.
– It is not likely that Washington would like the Gripen plane to fly freely from the territory of Ukraine while the F16 plane has restrictions, says Norborg.
Hear more in the video above.