Two months ago, I have contacted SAAB about Gripen NG and changes it will have when compared to earlier versions of Gripen (A, B, C, D – Gripen NG encompasses versions E and F).
I got following answers:
1) Gripen NG will be equipped with imaging IRST (imaging IRST works similar to IR camera and can create video image from IR radiation it receives). It will be forward-looking only (FLIR).
2) Airframe will be increased in size, and wingspan will also increase. Wing area will increase, so wing loading, while slightly higher than for C/D models, will still be low.
3) Cockpit will not be changed; rearward visibility will be facilitated by mirrors.
History and War 
In other terms, Gripen becomes a Mirage-2000 with canards?
Funny point : Brazil has left the basic Gripen for Gripen-NG AKA Gripen-E and ends paying $1.1bln more for their 28 Gripen-E than India pays for 36 Rafales!
Dassault should (have) consider(ed) making a kind of Mirage-3000 which would more be a shrank single engined Rafale but well, Rafale badly translates in english, many times, it’s even misundstood for Rafael, the Israeli company. With a target price of $45M, it could achieve very nice exports with better capabilities than any Gripen version and even allow the French govt to maintain a +300 jet fighter number in the AdlA once the Mirage-2000 are ending their service life and this could be a great competitor for the Make-In-India concept too… I’d really prefer a +320 Rafale force for us but let’s be clear : 180 will not be enough so considering making also 180 “Mirage-3000” to add to these could be OK, more in the goal of local defence while the Rafale job is most OpEx oriented…
We should also consider a serious CAS concept, preferably some dual turboprop aircraft or very light jet with some small Honda/Williams turbofans in some reboot of the Fw 1000x1000x1000???
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I believe Brazil is also paying development costs, point is unless you know what is ordered, comparing batch prices is not a good way to compare aircraft costs.
And yes, CAS fighter is a must, France is using helicopters for CAS right now. In Mali they used Gazelles because heavy attack helicopters were too expensive to deploy.
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