The Gripen Has Landed in Switzerland

The Gripen Has Landed in Switzerland July 25, 2008: The first candidate for the Partial Tiger Replacement programme (PTR) landed Emmen this morning. With the arrival of the Swedish Gripen aircraft in Switzerland, the air and ground tests for the PTR programme will begin. In the course of the second half of the year, the two other candidates, Rafale and Eurofighter, will follow. Today at 11.58 hours, two Saab Gripen aircraft landed at the Emmen airbase (LU). These two-seaters will be stationed in Switzerland for around a month from 24 July 2008. As part of the air and ground tests from Emmen as main airbase, some 30 flights are planned, some of which will also be carried out at night. In addition, about 50 sorties will be made with F/A-18 and F-5 aircraft, which will serve as targets and/or for formation flights with the PTR [candidates]. The evaluation flights form part of current flying contingents and should not cause additional flight movements at the respective airbases. And then? The arrival of the French Dassault Rafale is planned for 9 October 2008 and the European EADS Eurofighter are expected to arrive on 6 November 2008. The flight and ground test procedures will be identical for all three types of aircraft. In parallel to evaluating the air and ground test, the tenders that were handed in on 2 July 2008 will also be examined. The collected data will serve as a basis for a second call for tenders. After a second offer has been made and the subsequent evaluation report is produced in May 2009, the selection of the aircraft type is scheduled for July 2009.