>>10188408>Vitya Oh shit, you don't even know half of it. Originally the winner of the contract to replace the Fulcrums was all but certain going to be used USAF F-16's. And then on the VERY LAST DAY of the procurement program they did a heel turn and declared the Gripen as the winner. What happened? Who knows.
In the end at least the Gripen C was the better deal, it's cheaper to maintain, pretty modern, and instead of used ones we got brand new planes (well mostly, the wings are used wings from Gripen A's). Furthermore they're on lease, so officially they're still property of Sweden, and Sweden of course demands that their planes be maintained at their standards, so the government bean counters can't nigger around with maintenance costs like they did with the Fulcrums, who were seriously abused, and basically run-down into scrap aluminum and are unsellable (the government tried to sell or auction them off after retirement, but not even African countries wanted them).
