The new offer from Sweden will allow the Czech Air Force to continue operating 12 of its Gripen aircraft until 2035, when delivery of the F-35As will be completed.
The Czech Republic’s MoD (Ministry of Defense) is evaluating a new proposal from Sweden’s Saab that extends the lease of its JAS39 Gripen C/D fighters from 2027 to 2035. Responding to media queries, the MoD released a statement on Apr. 8, 2025, explaining that this would preserve the Czech Republic’s ability to ensure the protection of its airspace until the delivery of the F-35.
The MoD also said the Czech Air Force (CzAF) will gradually start including F-35 aircraft in the protection of its airspace from 2031, alongside the Gripen. The statement also stressed that the fifth-generation aircraft are “the only ones that will meet the requirements of the battlefield in the coming decades.”
Negotiations had been ongoing for some time, although a first offer did not meet the expectation of the MoD and was later renegotiated. The new offer, worth 16.65 billion CZK ($732 million), will allow the CzAF to continue operating 12 of its 14 Gripen aircraft until 2035. Those are split between 10 single seat and two dual-seat platforms.
The MoD stressed upon the “significant financial savings” accrued, compared to previous Swedish offers received in “almost two years” since the start of the negotiations. The commander of the CzAF, Major General Petr Čepelka, said the offer is “acceptable from the point of view of the Czech Air Force Command,” as it allows it to fullfill its tasks.
If the MoD and the Czech Army also deem it as acceptable, “they will submit a draft contract to the government and the signing could take place by the end of the current government’s term,” the statement added. There was no statement from the Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson, FMV or Saab at the time of filing this report.
Czech Ministry of Defence has made progress in negotiations with Sweden regarding the continued use of JAS-39 Gripen fighters including maintenance & pilot training from 2027 to 2035.A revised offer from Swedish side is currently being assessed in cooperation with Czech Forces. pic.twitter.com/0oWVrjJ6Jt
— Valhalla (@ELMObrokenWings) April 9, 2025
The Czech Republic originally signed in 2004 a 10-year lease with the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) and Saab, worth 19.65 billion CZK ($867 million at current rates), to receive 14 Gripens and replace Soviet-era MiG-21s. It was subsequently extended to 2027. The jets are based at the 21st Tactical Air Force Base at Caslav.
As for the F-35s, the Czech Defense Minister Jana Černochová and U.S. Ambassador Bijan Sabet signed a Memorandum of Understanding for 24 F-35A Lightning IIs in Jan. 2024. The first aircraft is expected to arrive in the Czech Republic in 2031, with deliveries completed in 2035.
🇨🇿 Czech Ministry of Defence now evaluating a new and much cheaper #Gripen lease extension offer.
2027-2035: Fleet reduced from 14 to 12 JAS 39C/D with 10 being single-seaters. Optimized flight hour use. Modernization. Discount ~ 25%.
Czech MOD https://t.co/Et86hY9zQJ pic.twitter.com/EkjfYMf6SQ
— Gripen News (@GripenNews) April 8, 2025
New lease contract
As mentioned earlier, extending the lease for the Gripen C/Ds is seen as an “effective solution” until the CzAF gradually starts including F-35s in the protection of the airspace from 2031. Given the operational need, and the fact that the initial offers did not meet Czech expectations, MoD officials began another round of negotiations with the Swedish side about extending the lease of the aircraft, servicing and training.
“We have now arrived at a variant that is significantly more advantageous for the Czech Republic. Compared to the original offer, we negotiated a discount of approximately 25 percent,” said Lubor Koudelka, Senior Director of the Armaments and Acquisitions Section. The new Swedish offer includes “optimization of the number of aircraft and flight hours,” attaining “significant financial savings compared to the Swedish offers in the last almost two years.”
Czech Republic evaluates new proposal from Sweden for extended lease of Gripen fighter jets. pic.twitter.com/uD1OhZBecV
— International Defence Analysis (@Defence_IDA) April 10, 2025
The 16.65 CZK ($732 million) to be paid by the Czech would include “aircraft lease, servicing and training between 2027 and 2035,” at the current exchange rate of the Swedish Krona and the Czech Koruna. Interestingly, the lease itself does not constitute “a significant part of the offer,” but is rather “influenced in particular by the age of the aircraft used, which will be in service for the third decade, and higher maintenance costs are therefore expected.”
Another factor influencing the cost is that, “over the past 20 years, labor market prices and material prices have increased significantly in the military aviation sector.” The contract caters for this to prevent future cost overruns and renegotiations. “The contract under preparation thus responds to the development of prices in recent years, which has significantly exceeded the long-term average,” the Czech MoD’s release added.
Aircraft modernization
The contract also involves aircraft upgrades and improvements of the aircraft currently used by the CzAF to meet “operational capability needs in response to the current battlefield situation.” For this, the Swedes have proposed a modernization plan worth 3.9 billion Koruna ($174 million).
The Czech government had already allocated a budget of almost 2 billion CZKs for the modernization and upgrade of its JAS39 Gripen C/D fleet for the period between 2015 to 2027. “The aircraft were or will be modernized already during the current lease period,” said the MoD, hinting at the upgrade being in progress.
As The Aviationist reported, the Swedish Air Force (Flygvapnet) is upgrading 60 of its older JAS39 Gripen C/Ds as part of an “obsolescence management” project. It is not known whether the upgrades and improvement to the CzAF’s Gripen C/Ds would enhance them to the MS20 Block 3 or the MS20 Block 4 configurations, similarly to the Swedish ones.
Transition to F-35
The MoD statement also quoted CzAF commander Maj. Gen. Petr Čepelka, who put the extension of the leasing in perspective “the context of the acquisition of acquired and planned capabilities for the Czech Armed Forces, and in the field of tactical aviation, especially given the schedule for the acquisition of 5th generation aircraft capabilities in the F-35 program.”
Zpět do České republiky se včera vrátila z mise Baltic Air Policing 2019 první část úkolového uskupení včetně letounů JAS-39 Gripen. Druhá skupina českých vojáků se zpět do své vlasti vrací 9. ledna. pic.twitter.com/RnDpkd9qoq
— Ministerstvo obrany (@ObranaTweetuje) January 3, 2020
In this context, “the current Swedish offer is acceptable from the point of view of the Czech Air Force Command. Even with a lower number of aircraft, we will be able to fulfill the tasks of protecting the airspace of the Czech Republic,” Čepelka said.
He added that a smooth transition to the new platform is also important since the “core of the new F-35 pilots will be JAS-39 Gripen pilots.” Also, the Czech Republic is in a unique position since it is the only country that will operate both the Gripen and the F-35.
