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Have any real-world air combat exercises (Red Flag, Maple Flag) produced public results comparing Gripen and F-35 dogfighting outcomes?
Executive summary
Public, verifiable records of Red Flag or Maple Flag exercises that publish head-to-head dogfight outcomes directly comparing the Saab Gripen and the Lockheed Martin F‑35 are not found in the provided reporting; most citations of Gripen “kills” at Red Flag trace back to repeated online retellings of a 2006 Gripen participation anecdote attributed to a former Swedish Air Force flight engineer rather than to official exercise after‑action reports [1] [2]. Opinion and analysis pieces debate whether a Gripen’s maneuverability would beat an F‑35 in close‑in engagements, but these are speculative or secondary analyses, not declassified public scoring from those large exercises [3] [4].
1. No official, public Red Flag/Maple Flag kill‑tables comparing Gripen vs F‑35 found
Search results here do not include any official USAF or exercise-host statements publishing a declassified scoreboard that pits Gripen against F‑35 dogfight results; the prominent claims of decisive Gripen wins at Red Flag are sourced to interviews, opinion sites, or reposted anecdotes rather than to primary Red Flag reports [1] [2]. F‑16.net users explicitly caution that much of the Gripen‑Red Flag lore is secondhand, contested and not corroborated by exercise rules of engagement or official documentation [5].
2. The most‑cited “Gripen success” traces to a single participant’s anecdote
Multiple outlets and blogs repeat an account by Stefan Englund, a former Swedish Air Force flight engineer, claiming Gripens scored multiple kills and “one pilot knocked down five F‑16s” during Red Flag 2006; these retellings appear across The Aviation Geek Club, 19FortyFive and GlobalDefenseCorp, but none of the supplied articles link to an official Red Flag after‑action release or corroborating USAF statement [1] [2] [6]. Forum discussion on f-16.net highlights skepticism and notes that Saab did not widely publicize such a record, which raises questions about completeness and context [5].
3. Exercise results can be misleading without ROE, force‑mix and umpire context
Commentary on forums and analysis pieces stresses that exercise “kills” depend on rules of engagement, simulation fidelity, datalink settings, aircraft loadouts, umpire adjudication and whether stealth or EW features were enabled — factors rarely published in full for public consumption [5] [4]. The f-16.net thread explicitly warns we lack details like ROE, and therefore anecdotal kill counts risk misrepresenting operational comparators [5].
4. Analysts still debate F‑35 vs Gripen performance — but largely in hypotheticals
Journalistic and specialist analyses argue different conclusions: some say Gripen’s agility and cost profile favor it in close dogfights once stealth is compromised, while others emphasize the F‑35’s sensor fusion and beyond‑visual‑range advantages. These are analytical or opinion pieces (e.g., National Security Journal, Hush‑Kit) rather than exercise scorecards [3] [4]. The supplied sources show clear disagreement among commentators about which design philosophy “wins” in different mission sets [3] [4].
5. Secondary reports and popular outlets often recycle the same anecdote
Several outlets (Eurasian Times, 19FortyFive, GlobalDefenseCorp) repeat the Gripen‑Red Flag narrative, amplifying it across the web without adding new primary evidence; that pattern can create an impression of an established fact where only an anecdote exists in the supplied corpus [7] [8] [6]. Forum users and critics call out those retellings as unverified or PR‑friendly, indicating potential bias or agenda in repeated coverage [5].
6. What is missing and what a definitive public comparison would need
Available reporting does not provide a declassified, side‑by‑side kill/loss table from Red Flag or Maple Flag showing Gripen vs F‑35 engagements with transparent ROE, force composition, sensor settings and umpire rules; without those items, public claims about which type “won” remain unverified in these sources [1] [5]. If you want a definitive public comparison, look for official USAF/host country debriefs, independent exercise auditors’ reports or released adjudication logs — none of which appear in the supplied results [5].
Conclusion — measured takeaway
The supplied reporting shows a widely circulated Gripen anecdote from Red Flag 2006 and vigorous debate among analysts about Gripen vs F‑35 matchups, but it does not contain authoritative, public exercise results directly comparing dogfight outcomes between Gripen and F‑35 with full exercise context [1] [3] [5]. Readers should treat repeated online claims as unverified until corroborated by primary exercise documentation or official statements.