So Croatia is replacing their Mig-21s. Current options are G

Croatia currently spends a whopping 1.21% of GDP ($633m) on it's military and is looking to replace a rapidly aging fleet of 12 Mig-21s with something else. The used F-16s would be the obvious choice because $$$.

>>34623424
FA-50 is fairly cheap though, and a newer aircraft would be easier to maintain then a beat to shit F-16. The lower capabilities aren't really an issue when they really just need it for interdiction anyways. I guess the F-16 would be good considering the massive supply support for it, but the FA-50 uses some common Lockheed parts as well.

For a small country like croatia the gripen would be the best choice. It offers good fuel efficiency and cheap fligh time and maintenance. It is also a perfect fighter for the air-air inceptor role. I don't think Croatia will need much air to ground capabilities.
Oh and did i already mention that it's CHEAP

they are still flying the MiG -21??? Scary.

>>34623363
>FA-50
koreans make jet fighters?

File: fa-50.gif (51KB, 675x584px) Image search: [Google]

51KB, 675x584px

FA-50 is cute, CUTE!

>>34623455
syrians do it too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctirIlbRpTw

Did some more research. Looks like Israel is offering to sell their old F-16 A/B trainers which would be upgraded through the ACE route, which basically adds a glass cockpit, new avionics, and weapons integration. Saab is offering the Gripen C/D. Not sure what America would offer, I found an older article suggesting they were offering to basically give them F-16s for free, but that seems less likely now. No clue what Greece is offering, possibly upgraded Block 30s?

>>34623424
Buying used F-16s might be justified when they already had existing infrastructure to operate and maintain F-16 and is looking for additional birds (like Jordan, Pakistan and indonesia), but as it is right now they are better off with buying new stuff that they could expect to get 30 years of service

FA-50 could be good.

>>34623441
Prolly if they get the old A/B variants from SwAF storage

Gripen E is more expensive than Su-30

>>34623455

Mig-21 is safe to fly. In fact, all those non-combat crashes mainly came from indian air forces with indian-made Migs

Sure the components (especially the engines) had lower life cycle than equivalent western components but with proper MRO they could keep the bird in the sky for quite a long time

>>34623468
Thailand is getting TA-50 so it will be interesting to see it flying side by side with Gripen. We may even see pilots transitioning from TA-50 to Gripen.

Their input is gonna be invaluable to other countries stuck with these 2 choices

>>34623511
A/B is still better than mig 21 (lol). And NATO member obviously can't buy from Russia because politics and ukraine sanctions