How much does an air-to-air missile loadout add to the unit cost of a Saab Gripen C/D or E/F?

1. What the reporting actually provides — aircraft deals, launchers and integration payments

Major reporting in the set focuses on whole‑package fighter sales and infrastructure rather than per‑weapon pricing. Reuters covers a €3.1bn (≈ $3.62bn) Saab‑Colombia deal for 17 Gripen E/F jets, which is a platform and support package rather than a line‑item breakout of missiles ^[1]. Separately, Sweden bought a new missile launcher/launch system for Gripen C/D and E — a series production order reported at SEK1bn (~$104m) — and press pieces describe that launcher enabling carriage of air‑to‑air missiles and countermeasure pods ^{[2] [5]}. Saab and FMV contracts of SEK466m (~$42m) are cited for upgrades and missile‑integration studies for Gripen C/D ^{[3] [4] [6]}.

2. Why those numbers do not equal a “missile loadout per aircraft” price

The published SEK1bn launcher order and SEK466m integration contract are procurement and upgrade programmes — they cover hardware (launchers/pylons), engineering, series production and system integration across fleets, not the subsidised or unit retail price of individual missiles per jet. The €3.1bn Colombia sale is an all‑up procurement (aircraft, support, offsets) and reporting does not disclose weapon‑by‑weapon costs inside that total, so you cannot reliably divide headline totals by missile counts to infer real missile unit costs or the marginal add‑on for a missile package ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

3. What we can reasonably infer from the reporting

From Saab marketing material and reporting, Gripen E can carry up to seven Meteor BVR missiles plus two IRIS‑T WVR missiles, and Saab highlights “best‑in‑class weapons” and easy stores integration — that establishes the potential missile capacity per jet but not cost ^[7]. The existence of dedicated production orders for pylons/launchers and separate integration contracts shows weapon fitment is a material programme cost beyond the flyaway airframe; the launcher order alone (SEK1bn) and the SEK466m upgrade work indicate national procurement of launch and integration infrastructure runs into tens to hundreds of millions of kronor — meaning per‑aircraft marginal costs for full integration will be non‑trivial when amortised across small buys ^{[2] [3]}.

4. Missing pieces and why precise arithmetic is impossible from these sources

None of the provided articles itemise the price of specific AAMs (Meteor, IRIS‑T, AIM‑120, Sidewinder) or give unit costs, nor do they show how many missiles come as part of particular government packages; available sources do not mention per‑missile or per‑aircraft missile‑loadout line items inside the Colombia or Brazil contracts ^{[1] [8]}. Because missile procurement often involves separate contracts, classified discounts, offsets, and integration costs that vary by customer, you cannot derive a trustworthy per‑aircraft missile‑loadout cost from the cited material ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

5. Alternate approaches a buyer or analyst would take (and what to look for in reporting)

To get the number an analyst wants, seek: (a) procurement contracts or budget documents that list missiles procured (type, quantity, unit price); (b) integration/launcher contract invoices showing scope and unit counts; (c) industry price lists or export records for the missile types (Meteor, IRIS‑T, AIM‑120) and any offsets that reduce headline costs. The current reporting gives examples of the types of contracts to search for (airframe package, launcher/py­lons, missile integration upgrades) but does not provide the detailed procurement line items to compute a per‑jet missile loadout price ^{[2] [3] [1]}.

6. Bottom line for your original question

Available reporting in this set does not provide a definitive figure for “how much an air‑to‑air missile loadout adds to the unit cost” of a Gripen C/D or E/F. What the sources do show is that missile integration and launcher procurement are separate, meaningful budget items — the Swedish launcher order (~SEK1bn) and integration contracts (~SEK466m) illustrate that weapons‑related costs can run into the tens or hundreds of millions of SEK at the programme level, but you cannot translate those programme sums into a specific per‑aircraft missile‑loadout price from the documents provided ^{[2] [3] [4] [1]}.