Thread: Gripen fighters part of Air Force’s ambitious plan

THAILAND aims to become a leading power in Asean by having one of the strongest air forces in the region by the end of this decade.

In 2008, the Royal Thai Air Force spent up to Bt34 billion on the purchase of 12 Swedish-made Gripen fighter jets as part of an effort to replace the ageing |F-5A/B jets.

The JAS 39 Gripen is a light, single-engine, multi-role fighter aircraft manufactured by the Swedish aerospace company Saab.

The Royal Thai Air Force ordered a complete aircraft and command and control system from the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration in a government-to-government deal, according to GlobalSecurity.org website.

more Gripen fighters part of Air Force?s ambitious plan

The Grippon that crashed today was due to pilot error, as they discovered long ago in South Africa.

^ How's that, then?...Bit early, if they've spoken on it...

^ the expert pilots on TV have verified it.

That was quick...

Originally Posted by misskit

THAILAND aims to become a leading power in Asean by having one of the strongest air forces in the region by the end of this decade.

Three years to go to meet their objective. It would be interesting to read something on what threats the TAF feels it needs to meet.

Face threats...

Originally Posted by BaitongBoy

How's that, then?

Predetermined conclusion. Saab and it's Thai joint venture AVIA Satcom will make sure the pilot dunnit.

Jut a hint of a "bum" bomb detector "run amok?"...

Originally Posted by Norton

Originally Posted by BaitongBoy

How's that, then?

Predetermined conclusion. Saab and it's Thai joint venture AVIA Satcom will make sure the pilot .

More to do with people who barely can pilot a Cessna single engine and then are trained to fly jet fighters.
Exactly the same thing happened in South Africa, the idea of let's get the worlds first black ace pilots to show that Aborigines can master flying.
See they are equal to Tom Cruise in Top Gun.
Did it work.?
The black pilots kept crashing in their first solo flights on propeller trainers before they got near the Grippon.
Will a Tuk Tuk brain master get the , grip on , Grip On

Originally Posted by Norton

Saab and it's Thai joint venture AVIA Satcom will make sure the pilot dunnit.

That the pilot didn't eject points more to something wrong with the pilot than something wrong with the plane.

Originally Posted by lom

That the pilot didn't eject points more to something wrong with the pilot than something wrong with the plane.

Based on video, he was very low high speed roll and augered in. All happed in 2 or 3 seconds. Doubt failure to eject. Really no time. Looked to me he either got disoriented or had a flight control failure. Sorry on phone can't post youtube link but google gripen crash thailand to find the vid.

Seems they have a long way to catch up...

Have they achieved their "hub of justice" status yet? pft...

Delusions are free, I suppose...

Originally Posted by NZdick1983

Seems they have a long way to catch up..

Easy on em Dickie. They did specify the region but even with that fine print still a long way to go. Those new subs won't help. Vietnam actually has 5 with another on the way. Counting the Thai aircraft carrier is bogus. No aircraft. Basically a nice docked monument to celebrate gross stupidity in military procument. Good for kids day though.

Indonesia is way out of reach. No worries. It lies outside the defined region so NZ will be added.

Upgrade the Air Force and military in general.

For what purpose...??

Originally Posted by KiCanCummins

Quite right, in the video you can see he was inverted and pulled the stick back,

Inverted yes but I can't see what he did with the stick.
Looks to me that he intended to do a classic flight-show maneuver, ie a couple of rolls, getting out inverted and then followed by a 180 degree loop so he returns in the opposite direction.
For some reason he did only 90 of those 180..

Originally Posted by KiCanCummins

It would be good to see how many hours he had in the Grippon, probably not enough

Don't know about amount of Gripen hours this pilot had but all the Gripen pilots were/are experienced F16 pilots who underwent coversion training in Sweden. Could have pulled when he should have pushed but same thing holds true on F16. Pending evidence of a flight control failure conclusion will be pilot error.

Well My Mary's seen that on Thai social media they believe that the pilot was a good pilot because he did not eject to save his own life, but sacrificed his own life to stear the stricken aircraft away from crowds and crash into an area free of people.

No mention ghost caused the crash?

Originally Posted by Norton

Originally Posted by KiCanCummins

It would be good to see how many hours he had in the Grippon, probably not enough

Don't know about amount of Gripen hours this pilot had but all the Gripen pilots were/are experienced F16 pilots who underwent conversion training in Sweden. Could have pulled when he should have pushed but same thing holds true on F16. Pending evidence of a flight control failure conclusion will be pilot error.

He could have been an "Experienced F16 Pilot" again how many hours in that bird? At only 34 years old I doubt if he had many, but that is my $0.02 worth. Most "experienced" western pilots are in there 40's. But then its hard to assume all of this until the facts are in (ASSUME, makes an ASS of U & ME) if ALL the facts are revealed.
I would not call the guy a hero for not ejecting, he clearly did not think it through, he made a mistake then not enough time to think eject or push stick forward = confused. One has to fly this in your mind at least 30 to 60 seconds before you maneuver the controls just like any fast racing etc. You have to be thinking ahead of where your at at any point in the sky.

Originally Posted by lom

Inverted yes but I can't see what he did with the stick.

LOM the aircraft flight path is clearly curved down towards the ground, if he had held the stick basically neutral fore & aft he would have been flying straight & level. But one can see that the aircraft is curving towards the ground inverted. Which indicates the stick was held back during the 90 degrees of roll and augered into the ground.

Originally Posted by NZdick1983

Seems they have a long way to catch up...

Have they achieved their "hub of justice" status yet? pft...

Delusions are free, I suppose...

North Korea has 78 submarines ???

Not sure what maneuver he was trying to perform at the time. It looked like a slow barrel roll with the slight pitch up on entering the roll, which will account for the stick pull. Unusual, but could have lost awareness on entering, bad night or no breakfast....doubt it was lack of experience.

If it was non fbw I would have plumped for a stick or control jam.

The generals have just published their budget for 2017.

The Ministry of Defence and Police get 312 billion baht while the Ministry of Health gets less than half that amount at 126 billion baht. No mystery about their priorities here!

What do you expect when uniformed pig snouts are in the feeding trough?

Of course Prayut’s younger brother was promoted to a command position by the Generalissimo himself. Other relatives of top generals have also benefited from the destruction of democracy.


In a recent move the junta has just appointed 28 MORE military and police generals to its rubber-stamp parliament. This is to ensure the necessary “peace and stability” for feeding at the trough and so that there can be more jobs for the boys.


Military coups and military regimes are truly carried out to eradicate corruption in society!! ei ei