In Turkey’s case, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s poker game to get Sweden to agree to join NATO has paid off in the form of additional F-16/70s and V-Kits. And Viktor Orbán’s “yes” will also be rewarded with new fighter jets: in return, Hungary will receive four used Saab Gripen C, which will be upgraded to the MS20-II standard before delivery and will be equipped with a new radar and Meteor capabilities.
When Orbán said in his state of the nation address last Saturday that the debate on Sweden’s accession to NATO was coming to an end, he described a “major breakthrough” in his relations with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who then also arrived in Budapest for a visit yesterday. Orban added that the positive decision could be ratified as early as the first session of parliament, which will begin on February 26. And Kristersson, for his part, said last Monday in Warsaw that there seems to be “a strong will on the Hungarian side” to actually finalize Sweden’s accession to NATO.
Today we opened a new phase of cooperation between Hungary and Sweden with @SwedishPM Ulf Kristersson. Thank you for your visit, Prime Minister! ???????????????? pic.twitter.com/tygr5OcxUP
– Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) February 23, 2024
According to information from various Hungarian media outlets, the “strong will” and “breakthrough” were preceded by intensive negotiations between the Swedish and Hungarian governments in recent weeks. During Kristersson’s visit, he and Orbán then signed an armaments and defense agreement that also includes the four additional Gripen C fighter jets mentioned above. Hungary has been flying a total of 14 aircraft of this type since 2006.
The Gripen C/D has not been built by Saab for ten years; the Swedish manufacturer currently produces a total of 60 Gripen E for Sweden and 36 Gripen E/F for Brazil. The Hungarian Government Commissioner for Defense Development, Gaspar Maróth, explained that military plans envisage the establishment of an entire additional fighter squadron within the Hungarian army, but that no detailed decision has yet been made.
“Teased” for two years
Defense Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky revealed back in December 2022 that four new Gripen aircraft could arrive in 2024. At the time, the Minister of Defense, together with the State Secretary for International Communications and Relations, Zoltán Kovács, spoke about the development of the Hungarian armed forces in the English-language podcast “The Bold Truth About Hungary”. At the time, Szalay-Bobrovniczky said that the country had entered a new phase of military development and that much of this was due to the lessons learned from the then ten-month-long and, for Hungary, neighboring Russia-Ukraine war neighboring Hungary.
The main aim of the plans was deterrence, meaning that Hungary wanted to demonstrate strength and resolve to a potential aggressor. The target number of Hungarian soldiers at the time was 37,500, but now it is even conceivable that this number will double in the coming years.
During their conversation, Szalay-Bobrovniczky and Kovács referred several times to a table listing the planned military procurements. Further Gripen fighter jets were listed right at the top, but the Ministry of Defense has always given cryptic answers to inquiries. Accordingly, the current contract for the logistical support of the leased 14 aircraft runs until 2026, after which the aircraft of the MH vitéz Szentgyörgyi Dezső 101st Puma Aviation Brigade at the Kecskemét military airfield (named after Szentgyörgyi Dezsőthe most successful Hungarian fighter pilot with 29 kills in the Second World War) became the permanent property of Hungary.
Preferences changed with the governments
On March 21, 2006, the first Hungarian Gripen flew regularly in Hungary. This was the largest military procurement by the Hungarian armed forces since the regime change and a clear sign that Hungary was breaking with Soviet technology. But the prehistory was a long one. Despite the serious economic situation, in September 1995 the government signed a letter of intent with the Swedish industrial group Wallenberg (which owns Saab) on the planned introduction of Gripen. However, this was not yet a contract and the newly formed first Orbán government declared in the summer of 1998 that the country’s economic situation did not permit the purchase of new aircraft and that it would prefer to procure used fighter jets – albeit without specifying a particular type.
The press speculated for a long time as to which aircraft type (the choices included Mirage 2000-5, F/A-18 and F-16) the government would ultimately decide on. During this time, the modernization or “westernization” of the MiG-29A/UB as part of a Russian-German cooperation (MAPS project) was also considered. Finally, in October 2000, the Ministry of Defense formally invited 14 NATO countries to submit bids for used fighter aircraft. The largest came from the Netherlands, where 200 F-16MLU – most of which have since been split between Chile and, most recently, Ukraine – were no longer needed.
The Dutch offer was approved by the Ministry of Defence and, on the basis of a professional consensus, the purchase of modernized F-16MLU was recommended. However, the national security cabinet then announced the purchase of new JAS-39A/B Gripen instead of two squadrons of 24 F-16s. In 2002, the new socialist government finally agreed to lease the customized JAS-39 EBS HU (Export Basic Standard for Hungary). This has the fuselage of the air-to-air refuelable C/D version, but otherwise many other components of the first A/B version.
In the summer of 2003, the older JAS-39A was delivered to the Saab plant in Linköping to be dismantled as the basis for the HU version. The first aircraft was finally completed at the end of 2004 and ceremonially unveiled in Linköping on January 25, 2005. The first flight was on February 16 and the first two-seater aircraft followed in October. The flight program was more detailed than for the normal C/D series, as several on-board systems and equipment of the Hungarian aircraft differed (IFF system, communication equipment, armament mounts, …) and accordingly also the software package of the computer systems. The first Hungarian soldier to board a (two-seater) Gripen alone after simulator preparation and training flight was Major Tamás Fekete on March 23, 2005. The training of technical personnel began in mid-April 2005, with 19 Hungarian soldiers acquiring the relevant technical knowledge in Halmstad in southern Sweden.
Gripen MS20
On January 12, 2022, Saab announced the capability development package of the Hungarian Gripen to the MS20 Block-2 standard. This represents a significant technological leap towards the top performance of the fourth generation of fighter jets. Thanks to the modernization, the Hungarian aircraft will receive more advanced communication and radar systems (such as NATO Mode 5 enemy identification system – IFF, Link 16 functionality and on-board radar PS-05/A Mk. 4) and will be compatible with a range of modern weapon systems. The procurement of new Iris-T missiles from Diehl Defense is already under contract, but the procurement of GBU-49 guided bombs and Meteor long-range air-to-air missiles is also underway, said Gáspár Maróth in January 2022. Gripen currently deploys AIM-9L and AIM-120-C5 air-to-air missiles in Hungary, as well as GBU-12 laser-guided bombs, Mk. 82 free-fall bombs and AGM-65 electro-optical self-guided missiles against ground targets.
On the occasion of the increase in the Gripen fleet, the newspaper “Magyar Nemzet” recalls further armaments cooperation with Sweden. Further fighter-bombers are mentioned, but most recently the Hungarian army also decided to purchase the Carl Gustaf M4 recoilless tank and bunker buster at a cost of around 50 million euros. And it is pointed out that the development of electronic reconnaissance and combat capabilities for the Hungarian armed forces is also underway and that the Swedish defense industry manufactures a number of these devices, as well as airborne and ground-based reconnaissance and target tracking systems.
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