By Thai Newsroom Reporters
JAS 39 GRIPEN fighter jets engaged in real combat for the first time ever on Friday during the Thai air force’s air strike missions against invading Cambodian forces in Thailand’s disputed border areas.
Since the first Gripen jet was manufactured by SAAB in Sweden in 1987, the aircraft has never been used in real combat anywhere in the world until Friday when a mini-squadron of the Thai air force’s Gripen jets left Wing 7 in Surat Thani in an unprecedented sortie for the disputed border areas in Thailand’s northeastern provinces and joined a mini-squadron of US-made F-16 Fighting Falcon jets from Korat and Takhli in the concerted air strikes against the Cambodian forces.
The Gripen jets were reportedly successful in coordination with the F-16s to bombard positions held by the Cambodian intruders, inflicting a number of fatalities and injuries on the Cambodian side and destroying Cambodian mobile rocket and artillery units in Tamuenthom and Pumakhua mountainous areas in Surin and Sisaket.
The Swedish-made JAS 39 Gripen such as those based at Wing 7 in southern Thailand since the last 14 years are a multirole combat aircraft fitted with US-made GBU-12 Paveway laser-guided bombs for ground attacks and US-made AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles.
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Top and Front Page: Gripen fighter jets flying high. Photos: Thai Rath
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