How Gripen masters Electronic Warfare

Duration: 05 minutes 42 seconds

The video highlights Saab’s Gripen as a fighter designed from the outset with electronic warfare (EW) at its core, making it uniquely suited to dominate the electronic battlespace. The premise is that no aircraft is truly invisible — all can be detected and targeted — so survival relies on using the electromagnetic spectrum to avoid, deny, deceive, and defend.

Gripen integrates advanced EW into every airframe, combining optimized sensors, spherical coverage, distributed broadband emitters and receivers, and powerful onboard computing. These systems detect threats, trigger automatic countermeasures, and can be rapidly reprogrammed within hours to adapt to new enemy tactics. This gives Gripen agility in an environment where threats evolve at high speed.

The aircraft uses sophisticated jamming techniques, electronic counter-countermeasures, and integrated defenses including chaff, flares, and decoys. It collaborates with other Gripens, airborne early warning systems like GlobalEye, and allied ground and naval forces, sharing EW data for efficient data fusion and network-enabled tactics.

Operationally, Gripen can jam enemy AWACS at long range, suppress hostile radars and air defenses, escort formations through contested airspace, and provide precise targeting data for both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. Its EW support extends to long-range suppression and maritime strike, ensuring weapons like the extended-range RBS-15 achieve their targets.

The video concludes that Gripen’s modular avionics, rapid upgrade cycle, and built-in EW supremacy ensure long-term relevance. In an era defined by rapid technological change, Gripen is portrayed as agile, adaptable, and able to outsmart evolving threats for decades to come.