Sweden has just made a game-changing move for Ukraine. With 16 Gripen fighter jets and the deadly Meteor missile on the way, Russia’s long-standing glide bomb strategy could be facing its biggest threat yet. Discover how the Gripen’s unmatched flexibility, rapid deployment, and beyond-visual-range firepower may transform the battlefield and force Putin’s air force to retreat. Is this the weapon system that finally shifts the balance of the war? Watch now.
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NewsTranscript
00:00The day that Russia dreaded has arrived. For years Putin's forces have been able to pelt
00:05Ukraine with glide bombs launched deep from behind the front lines. Now everything has
00:10changed and it's all thanks to Sweden. What Sweden just did for Ukraine is the most awesome
00:15thing that it or any country could have done and it's come at just the right time. Something that
00:21terrifies Russia is on its way to Ukraine. Sweden just gave Ukraine superpowers and it all comes
00:27down to the long arm. This is beyond insane. It's potentially war-ending.
00:33On May 28th, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Christensen and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
00:39held a joint briefing to announce a major development. The deal is done. It's all official. Sixteen
00:45of Sweden's Gripen CD fighter jets are heading into Ukraine. And best of all, Ukraine won't
00:51have to pay a single cent to get its hands on these lethal Western fighter jets. This
00:55is a huge deal for Ukraine. It's receiving a fighter jet that was purpose-built to counter
01:00the Soviet airframes that Russia is predominantly using in its war against Ukraine. But the real
01:05difference maker isn't the Gripen themselves. It's the long arm that will be loaded onto
01:10these jets that creates the biggest problem that Putin's strategy has faced in years.
01:14Before we get to that, there's the deal itself. Delivery of the sixteen Gripen CD fighter jets
01:19is expected to begin in early 2027. Though a condition is attached, Ukraine will only start
01:25receiving the jets once it has officially signed a purchase order for more Gripen jets that
01:30Sweden will provide in the future. Ukraine won't care about that. It fully intends to sign that
01:34document, which means the country's pilots are already gearing up to ensure that they can use
01:39their latest weapon to inflict colossal amounts of damage to Putin's forces.
01:44This is a truly historic event, a historic day for our cooperation and for our countries,
01:48Zelensky said during the joint briefing, adding,
01:51We're talking specifically about a squadron of Gripen's for Ukraine,
01:54and this is tremendously important support for us.
01:57Ukraine's president also revealed that there will be an approximate 10-month lead time between
02:01the signing of this deal and the Gripen's arriving in Ukraine, which gives Ukraine's pilots
02:06more than enough time to hone skills that they already started developing a few months ago.
02:10Those pilots can already fly Gripen's. Now Ukraine is expanding its pilot infrastructure
02:15and sending even more pilots abroad to complete their training. And that's not all. We mentioned
02:20a certain condition a moment ago. Ukraine has to sign a purchase order for more Gripen fighter jets
02:26before it gets its hands on the jets that Sweden is donating. According to Christensen, Ukraine is aiming
02:31to purchase another 20 Gripen fighter jets, with deliveries of those jets expected to begin at some
02:37point in 2030. But these aren't the same types of Gripen's that Ukraine will receive in 2027.
02:42Those are Gripen CD models. The jets Ukraine intends to buy, in a deal reportedly worth around
02:482.9 billion dollars, are Gripen EF models. Newer jets, stronger jets. The perfect jets for delivering
02:55a message to Russia that Ukraine intends to not only bring the power of Sweden's monstrous fighter jets to
03:00bear against Russia in the near future, but it will also ensure it has a strong fleet of them ready
03:05to
03:05go if Putin or his cronies get any dumb ideas about invading Ukraine again in the future.
03:10That deal will be made possible by a substantial loan from the European Union, which was approved in
03:15April following elections in Hungary that finally removed Russian ally Viktor Orban from power.
03:20With Orban gone, Hungary dropped the veto that had been preventing around 106 billion dollars
03:25flowing into Ukraine. Seeing the writing on the wall, Slovakia also dropped its veto,
03:31removing the final hurdle standing in the way of the arrival of a cash injection
03:34that Ukraine sorely needs. Almost 3 billion dollars of that money will go toward Gripen fighter jets.
03:41They, along with the 16 older models that Ukraine will receive, can make a massive difference for
03:46Ukraine in several ways. The long arm is one of them, and we'll be getting to that in a minute.
03:50But what will worry Putin more than anything is that Gripen's arriving in Ukraine
03:54means that an air force he believed would be of no concern to Russia when he launched his invasion
03:59is getting more modern and a whole lot more dangerous. The 16 Gripen's Sweden will send to
04:04Ukraine in 2027, along with the 20 more that Ukraine plans to purchase, will join an ever-expanding
04:10fleet of Western-made aerial firepower that has been transforming the sky battle in the Ukraine war.
04:15Ukraine currently has around 40 F-16s, which have been donated by its Western partners in Europe.
04:21Those 40 jets amount to around half of what Ukraine has been promised, as F-16s from Belgium and Norway
04:27are still waiting to be transferred. Belgium is waiting for the arrival of F-35s that it purchased
04:32from the US, and Norway is dealing with repair work that is taking longer than anticipated.
04:37Once those obstacles are removed, Ukraine's air force gets even stronger. Plus, Ukraine has at least
04:42five Mirage 2005F aircraft operating in its skies. The incoming Gripen's add to that firepower. Not
04:50bad for a nation that had little more than some older Soviet aircraft when Putin's forces invaded
04:54back in February 2022. As important as these other Western models are, their major drawback is that
05:00they're perhaps not quite as adept at handling the sort of warfare that Ukraine is fighting against
05:04Russia. The same can't be said of the Gripen. This fighter jet is the perfect addition to the
05:10Ukrainian Air Force for all sorts of reasons, starting with the longarm. That particular
05:15benefit changes everything in Ukraine, but before we explain why, this is a quick reminder that you
05:19are watching the military show. If you're getting value from our channel, remember to hit subscribe
05:23so you don't miss any of our videos. We've teased it long enough, it's time to reveal what the longarm
05:29is, and we only need one word to do it. Meteor. According to the deputy head of the President's
05:35Office of Ukraine, Pavlo Palisa, the Gripen's that Ukraine is set to receive from Sweden will
05:40all be loaded with the long-range Meteor air-to-air missile. But most importantly,
05:44Gripen with Meteor missiles on board will be the longarm of our invasion, which will allow us to
05:49drive away Russian cab carriers from the front. This is an invaluable strengthening of both our
05:53aviation and the protection of infantry, Polisa declared on Telegram, offering a hint as to why
05:59the longarm will be so critical to Ukraine's plans for dealing with the aerial threat that Russia
06:03poses. It's not just about the offensive capabilities that the Swedish jets pose.
06:08With the Meteor, Ukraine has a weapon that can stop Russian glide bombs in their tracks,
06:12not by hitting the bombs themselves, but by doing something so lethal that Russia won't be able to
06:17launch any more of them again. The Meteor is the perfect missile for that particular task.
06:22As Euromiden Press points out, the Meteor has been long considered one of the most advanced
06:27air-to-air missiles in the world, not least because it can travel dozens of kilometers to strike targets
06:32that are deep behind the front lines. The MBDA, which manufactures the missile,
06:37offers the basic specifications. Weighing 190 kilograms, this isn't a missile that Ukraine
06:42will use to destroy hardened positions. It packs firepower, sure, but it's not delivering hundreds
06:47of kilograms to a target. The Meteor's stock in trade is immense precision combined with enough
06:53strength to take out very specific types of targets. Deployable in several types of fighter jets,
06:58with the F-35, French Rafale and the Eurofighter Typhoon adding to the Gripen as compatible
07:03platforms, the Meteor is a beyond visual range missile, which is key to Ukraine's strategy.
07:09With other air-to-air options, Ukraine's Gripens would have to get within firing range of Russian
07:13air defenses or airframes before they can unleash their payloads. Not so with the Meteor. A Gripen can
07:19rattle off one of those missiles and Russia won't even know what's happening until the missile is
07:23bearing down on its target. When the Meteor arrives at its target, it unleashes a sophisticated blast
07:28fragmentation warhead that has been specifically designed to incapacitate enemy aircraft. That's
07:34a little clue as to how Ukraine is going to use its longarm to deal with Russia's glide bombs.
07:38A combination of RF proximity and impact fuses allows the Meteor to hit targets in multiple ways,
07:44while the fragmentation warhead ensures the delivery of damage across a wide target area,
07:49increasing the chances of success. There is simply no escape from the Meteor, and the situation is
07:55made even worse for Russia due to the missile being able to travel at speeds above Mach 4. A target
08:00can
08:01run and it can try to hide, but that sheer speed means that it isn't going to outrun the Meteor.
08:06In-flight course corrections can be provided to the missile via a data link and it uses inertial
08:11navigation during its mid-course flight to stay on target. As the Meteor hits the terminal phase of the
08:16flight, it switches to using an active radar seeker for autonomous guidance. In other words,
08:22the missile locks on and destroys. And with a range of up to 200km and a no-escape zone of
08:2760km,
08:29destroying its target is what the Meteor does far more often than not.
08:33So the Meteor is a problem for Russia, both because of its strength and how Ukraine intends to use it.
08:38But behind this problem is a far bigger issue. It's not just that the Meteor missiles can help Ukraine
08:43take glide bombs out of the equation, and you're going to learn how very soon.
08:46The Gripen jets that fire these missiles are also perfect for Ukraine,
08:51perhaps more than any other Western airframe the country has received.
08:54Why? Well, it's cheap, fast, and offers the sort of responsiveness to developing threats that
08:59Ukraine has cried out to have for years. What makes the Gripen so special is that it
09:04combines versatility with a design that makes it ideally suited for dealing with Russia's aerial
09:09strategy. That latter point shouldn't be a surprise, as the jet was built to confront the
09:13challenges posed by Russia's Soviet-era airframes. But the same could be said of other Western fighters.
09:18The Gripen stands apart from every other jet Ukraine has in its arsenal because it doesn't
09:23need the large and prepared runways that the likes of the F-16 and Mirage require.
09:27A Gripen can take off from much shorter runways, to the point where it's versatile enough to take to
09:32the skies from a short stretch of highway if the situation calls for it. That matters for a few reasons.
09:38First, it means that the Gripen can respond more quickly than any other jet in Ukraine's arsenal
09:42to an incoming threat. Time is gained due to fewer runway operations, so a Gripen can be in the air,
09:47shooting down incoming drones, while an F-16 is still on the ground awaiting confirmation that
09:52it's safe to take off. Second, think about how Russia is most likely to take out a Gripen.
09:56It isn't shooting one down in the skies. The Meteor and its beyond-visual-range
10:00capabilities make sure of that. Russia's best shot is to target the airfields where Ukraine
10:05keeps its Gripen's. The jets will be protected from threats by hardened hangars most of the time,
10:10but the short period between transfer from the hangar and take-off is always a problem.
10:14The shorter that period is, the less chance there is for a Russian missile to score a hit on one
10:18of
10:18Ukraine's new Swedish jets while it's on the ground. All of this means that with the arrival of the
10:23Gripen fighter jet, Ukraine could respond to Russia's aerial threats almost instantly. And it gets
10:28better. Insanely fast turnaround times are also a key feature of the Gripen. According to Ukrainian
10:34pilot Vadim Voroshlyov, who once said that the Gripen was the only fighter jet that he would sell his
10:38soul to fly for his country, the airframe can be refuelled and re-armed in as little as 10 minutes
10:43in ideal conditions. When dealing with something like a drone attack, that means the Gripen can fly
10:48a sortie, take out drones as it goes, touch down, get refuelled and re-armed, and then be back in
10:53the
10:53air for the second sortie to take out another wave of drones. You might think that all of this means
10:58that
10:58the Gripen is more expensive to operate than a comparatively limited jet, such as the F-16. But that
11:04isn't the case either. In a comparison of cost per flight hour, Defense Express revealed that the Gripen
11:09is one of the cheapest modern fighter jets to operate. The Gripen CD jets that are heading into
11:14Ukraine in 2027 cost $20,600 to fly per hour, the outlet proclaims. Even the newer Gripen EF airframes
11:22that will start arriving in Ukraine in 2030 cost just $22,100 per hour. As for the F-16, specifically
11:29the F-16V, that jet costs $25,600 per hour to fly when taking maintenance, crew, fuel and logistics
11:36expenses into account. Sure, it's not a massive difference at first glance, but over hundreds
11:40of hours of sorties, a $5,000 per flight hour saving adds up to hundreds of thousands and
11:46eventually millions of dollars in very short order. For Ukraine, which is trying to pinch as many
11:51pennies while being as effective in the air as possible, that sort of saving is nothing to be
11:55sniffed at. Zelensky summed it all up back in October 2025, when news broke that Ukraine was
12:00trying to acquire Gripen fighter jets. Gripen maintenance is the cheapest because the smallest
12:05number of personnel is required. For our pilots with qualifications and experience, it's not a year
12:09and a half of training like with the F-16s, but six months. All the technical capabilities related to
12:14takeoff and landing are also advantageous. They can take off and land on roads, Ukraine's president
12:20declared. No wonder Voroshlyov said he'd sell his soul to get into the cockpit of Gripen.
12:25Now he'll be beaming from ear to ear knowing that could happen without any sort of Faustian
12:29pact being needed. What will make Voroshlyov and Zelensky even happier is that the long arm that
12:34comes with the Gripen is capable of dealing with a threat that has been causing problems for Ukraine.
12:39We mentioned earlier glide bombs. Russia's aerial strategy for much of the war has been to send its
12:44fighter jets, primarily its Su-34s, up into the air to unleash Soviet-era bombs that have been
12:50converted into medium-range munitions using specially designed wing kits. The advantages are clear.
12:56The Su-34s don't have to get close to Ukrainian air defenses to launch these bombs. They simply go up,
13:02fire, and then land. And despite not being the most accurate weapons in the world, glide bombs often
13:06pack several hundred and sometimes thousands of kilograms of destructive force. When they're being
13:12fired at Ukraine's cities, accuracy isn't as important as the sheer destructive power.
13:16Russia has been steadily increasing the number of glide bombs that it launches at Ukraine,
13:21and it tends to fire several thousand of them each month. March 2026 was a banner month for Putin's
13:26strategy. Russia launched 7,987 glide bombs at Ukraine in that month, amounting to an average of
13:32almost 258 per day, and over 1,500 more of these devastating weapons that Russia launched during its
13:38last record-breaking month the previous February. Ukraine has to do something about this glide bomb
13:43problem. The long arm provides Ukraine with a solution to a long-standing problem. The grip and
13:49meteor combo means that Ukraine can fire a weapon that is designed to take out Su-34s and similar
13:54aircraft dozens of kilometers behind the front lines. What this means is that the Russians risk
13:59boundary changes. Before the arrival of the meteor, a Russian pilot could take to the sky up to 100
14:04kilometers away from their glide bomb target and feel fairly safe. Now these types of sorties carry
14:10a new kind of risk. Every Su-34 that takes off within range of Ukraine's meteor missiles is at risk
14:15of being shot down both before and after it unleashes its devastating cargo. The entire calculus of Putin's
14:22aerial strategy has changed and Ukraine is counting on that fact. With Gripen's and meteors, Ukraine hopes
14:28to push Russia's airframes so far back that their glide bombs become useless. That would be huge for Ukraine.
14:34A massive weapon would be taken out of Russia's arsenal, which in turn means that Ukraine can
14:39coordinate its defense on the ground without having to worry about bombardments of massive
14:43bombs disrupting its planning. As Fabian Hoffman, who is a senior researcher at the Norwegian
14:48Institute for Defense Studies, puts it, the Gripen CD with Meteor in principle offers the best capacity
14:54to counter Russian glide bombs before they are launched that Ukraine realistically has access to.
14:59Combine the Gripen's with Ukraine's electronic warfare, which is already doing a good job of countering
15:03Russia's glide bomb threat, and Putin has a major problem on his hands. Ukraine's middle-range strategy,
15:09which has seen unleash a new generation of mid-range drones on Russia, has already been causing chaos
15:14for Putin's forces. The Russian spring offensive that was supposed to define 2026 is being pinned back
15:21and countered due in part to Ukraine using these drones to take out Russian command posts and logistics
15:26behind the front lines. Throw Gripen's and meteors into the mix, and it becomes even harder for Russia
15:31to do damage to Ukraine's defenses. That means two things for Ukraine. Russia's offensives are stalled
15:37and opportunities for more counter-attacks emerge. Ukraine has already liberated 590 square kilometers
15:44of its territory in 2026 so far, Zelensky claimed toward the end of May. A lot more will follow if
15:49Russia
15:50isn't able to pen Ukraine's forces back with its seemingly never-ending glide bombs. And it's not
15:55like the Gripen is only capable of dealing with Russia's glide bombs. As the Kiev Independent points
15:59out, the fighter jet can be equipped with a range of missiles including AIM-120 AMRAAMs, AIM-9 Sidewinders,
16:05and IRIS-T weapons. So Ukraine has options. One sortie could see a Gripen dealing with drones or hardened
16:12targets. The next could see it send meteor missiles hurtling at airframes that Putin relies upon for his
16:17glide bomb strategy. We told you that Gripen's arriving in Ukraine could be a war-ender.
16:22This versatility, combined with how Gripen's play into Ukraine's medium-range strategy, is the reason
16:27why. It's all about whittling away at Russia's offensive options. The weaker that Russia's attacks
16:32become, the better the results attained by Ukraine's defenses and the more opportunities for territory-grabbing
16:37counter-attacks emerge. All that Ukraine needs to do now is continue the good work it's done for much
16:42of 2026 as it awaits the arrival of its first delivery of Gripen fighter jets from Sweden.
16:48When those jets arrive, the game changes. Russia isn't ready for any of it.
16:53Not that Ukraine's troops in Malatokmachka needed the help of Gripen's and meteors.
16:57They're more than capable of shattering the Russian offensive on their own. For more than four years,
17:02the defenses at the tiny village of Malatokmachka have held out against Russian attacks, leaving a
17:07burning trail of armor, drones and soldiers in their wake. Russia's most embarrassing battlefield
17:12stalemate has been exposed and you can learn the full story by watching our video. And if you enjoyed
17:17this video, remember to subscribe to The Military Show to see more of our coverage of the latest
17:21developments in the Ukraine war. And thank you as always for watching.
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