F-35 vs Saab Gripen: Canada’s Own Test Scored It 57.1 to 19.8

The F-35 is the more capable fighter, and Canada’s own test shows by how much. In the Defence Department’s 2021 competition the F-35A scored 57.1 of 60 points on military capabilities, or 95 percent, while the Gripen E scored 19.8 points, or 33 percent.

The Gripen wins on a different scorecard: it is far cheaper to fly, it can operate from short road bases, and Saab pitches it as easier to upgrade and maintain. The right pick depends on whether an air force needs the most capable jet or the most jets it can actually afford to fly.

One caution first: the specification widget above lists the two-seat JAS 39D. The aircraft that competes with the F-35 today is the single-seat Gripen E, so this page compares the F-35 with the E wherever the difference matters.

Stealth and sensors

Stealth is the F-35’s defining feature. It minimizes radar cross-section through airframe shaping and radar-absorbent materials, hides its engine face, and controls its own emissions, and its stealth design is aimed mainly at high-frequency X-band radar.

The Gripen E takes another route. Saab sells it on advanced electronic warfare, an AESA radar, an infrared search-and-track sensor and a cockpit built around human-machine collaboration. Stealth shaping is not part of that pitch.

Retired Canadian lieutenant-general Yvan Blondin told Radio-Canada the F-35’s advantages lie in its greater stealth and its ability to combine information from ships, other F-35s and surveillance aircraft.

Edge: F-35. Stealth plus sensor fusion is the gap the Canadian scorers saw.

What Canada’s 2021 test actually showed

The scores come from a Defence Department ranking obtained by Radio-Canada and reported in November 2025. The F-35 got 57.1 of 60 points and the Gripen E 19.8, with the gap widest in mission performance and the ability to upgrade over the aircraft’s life.

Context matters. Ottawa found that both jets met its minimum mandatory requirements, and the final decision also weighed long-term cost and economic benefits. A retired officer who spoke to Radio-Canada argued the 2021 criteria favored the F-35, and Saab said it never saw the final scores.

Edge: F-35. No other public side-by-side scoring of the two exists in our sources.

Cost: where the Gripen fights back

Cost is the Gripen’s strongest argument. Sweden’s defense materiel agency delivered the last batch of JAS 39Cs in 2008 at a flyaway cost of under $30 million each.

On operating cost, a 2012 Jane’s study quoted on Wikipedia put the JAS 39C at $5,800 per flight hour against $25,950 for the F-35A. The F-35A’s own cost per flight hour was $44,000 in fiscal 2018 and $35,000 in 2019, according to Wikipedia, which also says Lockheed Martin aimed for $25,000 by 2025.

Newer numbers are less flattering to the Gripen. A 2023 study by Aviation Week, done on behalf of Saab, found $20,643 per hour for the C/D and $22,174 for the E/F, so the gap depends heavily on what each study counts.

Edge: Gripen. Cheaper to buy and to fly, though the size of the gap depends on the study.

Basing and turnaround

The Gripen was designed for Sweden’s plan to disperse its fighters across rudimentary road bases, about 800 m long, in case of invasion. That requirement shaped its size, its short-field performance and its quick turnaround.

Saab lists a combat turnaround of 15 to 25 minutes for the Gripen E. The F-35 was not designed around that requirement.

Edge: Gripen. It was built for exactly this job.

Weapons and payload

Saab lists ten hardpoints on the Gripen E, and the C/D weapon list includes the Meteor and IRIS-T missiles. The F-35 carries its main weapons internally to protect its stealth.

The Gripen E also carries a Mauser BK-27 cannon, which the two-seat version drops.

Edge: Even. The Gripen carries more on the outside, the F-35 keeps it stealthy.

Production and customers

The F-35 is built in far greater numbers: 1,345 or more as of August 2026, against roughly 300 Gripens built by 2023. Many US allies now fly it.

The Gripen is still selling. Colombia signed for 17 Gripen E/F in November 2025, and on 30 June 2026 Ukraine signed for 16 Gripen E, with Sweden planning to donate 16 C/D. Saab said on 7 October 2026 that the first Gripen E built in Brazil had made its maiden flight.

Edge: F-35 on volume. The Gripen is selling to a different customer.

The Canada question

Canada planned to buy 88 F-35As, but as of February 2026 the only firm order was for 16, with long-lead items for 14 more, according to Wikipedia. The government launched a review in 2025, and in November 2025 the industry minister said Ottawa was weighing a move to the Gripen for most of its fleet unless the F-35 contract delivered more economic benefit.

As of October 2026 we found no announced final decision, so treat any claim that Canada has dropped the F-35 as unconfirmed. Saab has offered local production and 10,000 jobs.

Who wins: F-35 or Gripen?

For raw capability the F-35 wins, and it is not close in the one public scoring we have. The Gripen wins on cost, basing and the number of aircraft a smaller budget can field.

Read the two together: our F-35 page and Gripen page carry the full specifications, and the stealth fighter jets and best fighter jets rankings put both in wider context.

Edge: F-35 for the most capable jet, Gripen for the best value.