Thailand nevertheless wants to finally have full squadron of 12 newest Swedish Gripen E/F fighters from Saab, and country's Royal Air Force is preparing to submit request for purchasing additional eight aircraft — fighter procurement proposal should be reviewed by budget bodies and then approved by Thai government.
As local publication The Nation Thailand reports, country's air force wants to purchase additional eight Gripen aircraft in single batch and not fragment it into others, to ultimately accelerate commissioning of combat-capable squadron of these new fighters.
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Recall Thailand officially purchased new Gripens slightly less than a year ago, in August 2025, when firm order for four aircraft was concluded with Saab, three of which are single-seat Gripen E and one more in two-seat version, Gripen F. For Sweden this deal became especially significant, as this was first export contract in 12 years after Brazil ordered these fighters in 2010s.
Regarding Thailand, from very beginning country planned to arm with full Gripen E/F squadron, splitting procurement into two parts — first contracted four fighters, and subsequently planned to purchase eight more aircraft.
At the same time, from current media reports it appears procurement possibly wanted to be fragmented into even smaller quantity, for example into two agreements of four aircraft each.
One can cautiously assume this was planned to reduce burden on defense budget, which last year comprised $5.89 billion. First four aircraft delivery was planned for 2029-2030, and another eight for 2030-2034.
This, by the way, indicates Ukraine received quite favorable Gripen fighter delivery terms — recall in late June historic firm contract for 16 Gripen E was concluded for Armed Forces Air Force with delivery timelines in 2029-2030.
By the way, if already speaking about Thai Gripens, worth recalling last year they marked quite historic event — at least according to open source data, specifically Thai Air Force Gripens were first used for ground target strikes during combat operations, this occurred during border armed conflict with Cambodia.
As known, for ground target strikes Thailand used South Korean KGGB aviation bombs from its Gripens, and this, by the way, was first time it became known this weapons system was integrated on Swedish fighters. By the way, Thailand made decision to purchase new Gripens precisely against backdrop of combat operations with Cambodia
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