Sweden’s five Gripens taking part in NATO operations over Libya generate 37% of the reconnaissance reports for Operation Unified Protector, says a report in Defence Web. Eight single-seat JAS 39 Gripens at the start of April helped patrol the no-fly zone. The Swedish Government has not sanctioned ground attacks except in defence and the aircraft have been limited to reconnaissance roles.“If there is a special target that NATO is interested in, they prefer the Swedes to perform the mission. This makes me a little bit proud,” Fredrik Bergman, commander of the Swedish air force unit, told Svenska Dagbladet.With their reconnaissance pods, the Gripens can, from a height of 7000 metres, detect individual people. As soon as a Gripen returns from a mission, a group of technicians download all the digital photos, which are sent to NATO commanders within a few hours.FL 02 Commander Fredrik Bergman said the performance of the Gripens in the four-month operation was impressive since they only had around a quarter of the regular maintenance resources available.
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