JAS-39 Gripen:Malaysian Prospect

Recently many people(from average layman to military pundits,local military magazines,even people from Mindef) has been talking about major military acquisition from Sweden,which include state of the art Erieye AEW system and Swedish pride in the sky,JAS-39 Gripen. While Erieye is almost(God Willing) to be bought by Malaysia(issues right now is the aircraft.C-235 would the best option,since RMAF already operated it and thus will ease logistics)
Gripen,however,would be quite a different story.

JAS-39 GRIPEN:overview

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAS_39
 
Gripen started as a replacement of entire bulk of Swedish aircraft(Draken and Viggen) which would be obsolete in the 21st century,After evaluated few aircraft available in the market,Swedish Air Force decided to develop a new Fighter aircraft which would completely fulfill its requirement,which is low maintainance cost(even lower than the then new US lightweight fighter programme,the F-16 Falcon),and the ability to operate in dispersed area(unique to Swedish defence doctrine.It proposed that the aircraft would be able to land at anywhere with tarmac on top of it,refuel and rearm, and fly again,with just 5 crews and supply)

Upon entering service,already few countries impressed with its capabilities and started buying some(Up to a point where Swedish Air Force is "forced" to give them JAS-39 that is supposed to be in Swedish Air Force fleet for export).Current Operator include:Sweden,Czech,Hungary,South Africa,UK(as test aircraft) and recently,Royal Thai Air Force(to replace aging F-5s and to counter its neighbors' state of the art aircraft in induction,which is Flanker in Malaysian/Indonesian/Vietnam service and Singapore with their F-15SG).Export prospect is looking good for Gripen,with many countries already began to find replacement for their aging F-5,MiG-21,old french Mirage and even early batch of F-16.However it faced serious challenge(and even back stab and dirty play,especially from the American) from other aircraft models,such as American F-16 C/D block 50/52/52+,F/A-18E/F, Mulltinational Eurofighter Typhoon,French Dassault Rafale and Russian MiG-35 and latest Flanker series(Su-30MKM/I variant,Su-30MK2 variant and Su-35.Long live cheap,great russian aircraft  : D).

Malaysian Prospect
With early retirement of MiG-29N/NUB(which is quite a shame,since that aircraft could be upgraded to MiG-29SMT and continue to be in service beyond 2020) and the proposal of another batch of 18 new MRCA,Malaysia is also considered as a place to make money for aircraft companies.Russia already propose to trade in all MiG-29s for another 6 Su-30MKM(a good thing rather than letting it to collect dust somewhere in the storage facility),but question now is about the other 18 aircraft contract.Russia,again,offered Su-30MKM,as well as Su-35 and MiG-35 to malaysia,while Boeing(USA) offered us F/A-18F.Malaysia is also consider Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale(which is quite a surprise,although a welcomed one).SAAB,realizing the potential,has put Malaysia among its prospect as customer country.

But,while the author(that is "me") doesn't entirely ruled out Gripen as the option for the MRCA contract,it is also unlikely for Malaysia to buy Gripen as well,for few reasons:

1-It is a single engined aircraft.Recent Malaysian military trend tend to opt for 2-engined aircraft because it provided more thrust at lower attitude,since Malaysia is separated by South China Sea
2-Shorter range compared to 2-engined aircraft without in-flight refueling,2-engined aircraft usually has longer range and thus have wider maritime-patrolling range.
3-It carries less payload compared to 2-engined aircraft and 2 aircraft might need to be sent to bombards key target installations  instead of one large 2-engined aircraft.
4-Thailand also operates Gripen(6 aircraft with another six as an option).One of the reason why Singapore ruled out Su-30 and F/A-18F is because Malaysia operates Su-30MKM and are really interested with F/A-18F.

However,Gripen also have some qualities that need to be considered by RMAF as well:

1-Low maintainance cost and less ground operating crew(only five people,usually conscript in Swedish Air Force)
2-The ability to carry sophisticated armaments,including IRIS-T and ASRAAM short range AAM,new AMRAAM version and Meteor BVR AAM,and ALARM anti-radiation missile(plus other NATO-complement missiles and bombs)
3-Low RCS.While it isn't a true stealth aircraft,its nature as a small fighter plus its design means that it has less radar cross section than other non-stealth aircraft
4-AESA radar for later Gripen generation.
5-non traditional manufacturer might offers significant ToT and other assistance that is not available in traditional aircraft manufacturer(especially the American and their "policy" of using their weapon/system)

The author believe that our Malaysian top brass already made a significant research on aircraft we might acquire in the future,based on requirement,budget and other factor(ToT,restriction policy,threat,etc),thus any aircraft that would be procured is deemed as the best aircraft we can buy.