The Swedish aircraft builder Saab has secured the Royal Thai Air Force as a recurrent customer of the modernised Gripen aircraft.
On 4 June 2025, the service announced its selection of the JAS 39 E/F as its future multirole fighter jet. Saab and the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) will follow the next steps in the procurement process, the company confirmed on the same day.
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Saab has not yet signed a contract nor received an order relating to this announcement. However, the Nordic supplier did reveal that it will offer a long-term offset package to Thailand without offering any details of the industrial benefits to come to the Kingdom.
This may include substantial investment in manufacturing facilities in the country and perhaps a licence to produce the combat aircraft. Whatever the perks, the company did confirm that the offset will bring new jobs and investments to a range of Thai society sectors.
“We welcome the Royal Thai Air Force’s selection of Gripen E/F as its future fighter and look forward to the next steps in this procurement process,” commented Micael Johansson, president and chief executive of Saab.
According to a GlobalData intelligence in its Thailand country report, the South East Asian nation operate numerous legacy multirole aircraft from a wide array of American F-16s, a few ageing F-5s.
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By GlobalDataMost recently, the Royal Thai Air Force have flown Gripen: seven C and four D variants since 2011-2013.
Gripen sales soar
Saab has seen an uptick in Gripen sales throughout 2025 according to the company’s financial assessments. In aeronautics, the Gripen platform, along with the Red Hawk trainer and GlobalEye, garner the most interest. Although, capitalised expenditures are mainly attributable to the development of Gripen E/F.
Gripen E/F has become a particularly attractive platform to air forces within the Global South. In late 2024 to 2025, this includes Brazil, Columbia, and now Thailand.
Brazil’s order of 36 Gripen E/F jets came with a considerable offset arrangement involving technology transfers and development inside the vast country, including the production of Gripen aircraft.
In early April 2025, Columbia selected the E/F variant – somewhere between 16 and 24 aircraft – while government and military officials stressed the importance of having an adequate industrial and training model inside the country.
