Stockholm Offers Fighter Jets for Ukraine if Sweden is Allowed to Join NATO
The offer appeared to be the latest move in an ongoing diplomatic effort to persuade Turkey to drop its objection to Sweden joining the military alliance.
The Swedish defense ministry said on Friday it could contribute its Gripen warplanes to a Western coalition that is trying to speed fighter jets to Ukraine — but only after Sweden is allowed into NATO.
The offer, included in a $200 million package of weapons, 155-millimeter caliber ammunition and other defense support for Ukraine, was the latest move in an ongoing diplomatic effort to persuade Turkey to drop its objection to Sweden joining the military alliance.
“Support in the form of JAS-39 Gripen would be conditional on Sweden first becoming a member of NATO,” the Swedish Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Ok now THAT is a power move I can respect. I know it’s kinda in the realm of playing politics, but Erdogan is being such a fucking tool and he genuinely needs to be taken down a notch.
If this is the thing that finally gets him to stop dicking around and undermining the rest of NATO, and gets Sweden into NATO, and also gives Ukraine a modern multi role fighter that just happens to be able to fire Meteor missiles (much of the data is classified, but it’s considered to be at least as good as an AMRAAM, with a much newer design and longer range)… well, that’d be pretty awesome.
Because the entire rest of NATO will lean on him even harder.
Tangentially, it might be a very shrewd tactic for Sweden to offer a deal to Turkey on some fighters. THAT might be a clear enough quid pro quo for Erdogan to accept.
They drive a hard bargain, but deal!
Wouldn’t that require Turkey to actually care about Ukraine? They seem perfectly happy to play both sides of the conflict.
Turkey can seem all they want, but they have a very vested interest in reducing Russian black sea influence. They care more than any other member of NATO other than Poland.
Edit: it wouldn’t surprise me if they promised more weapons to Ukraine to specifically target the black sea fleet through secret diplomatic meetings, for example
This is a key advantage of nato membership. You can afford to drain your weapons stockpile a great deal more when you have an 800 pound gorilla with no healthcare that will smash anything that tries to invade you.
Wonderful paint / camo (is that camo?) job on that jet
I don’t know the name of it but I believe that pattern is the standard camp for Swedish military. This looks like an urban colour tone but there are Woodland and Arctic colour schemes too.
