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"One interesting feature is the Gripen's ability to land on public highways, or even on adapted grass fields. Once on the ground, it can be refuelled and re-armed in ten minutes by a five man mobile ground crew operating out of a truck, then take off again and resume flying sorties."
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAS_39_Gripen
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Armament
1 × 27 mm Mauser BK-27 cannon
6 × AIM-9 Sidewinder (Swedish designation Rb-74) or IRIS-T (Swedish designation Rb-98)
4 × AIM-120 AMRAAM (Swedish designation Rb-99), BAe Skyflash (Swedish designation Rb-71 Skyflash), MICA or Meteor
AGM-65 Maverick (Swedish designation Rb-75), KEPD 350, or various other laser-guided bombs, rocket pods.
RBS-15 Mark 2 air-to-sea anti-ship missile
Bombkapsel 90 cluster bomb
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I also believe the Gripen would be the best machine for Canada's North, but then governments don't always select the best. Politics dictate the selection. In Britain, 1935, they were fortunate to have the Supermarine Spitfire designed and put into production. The role of politics was subsumed by the necessity of the moment, for excellence.
As the free world squares itself away for the showdown to come with totalitarian nations who have now achieved a rudimentary AXIS centered on Iran in the Persian Gulf, the necessity for similar excellence and flexibility again raises its head.
Each Grippen in effect has a fully operational "chase crew" housed in a single truck. One fuel tanker and 4 such trucks would be all that is necessary to set up a movable base on a 900 meter stretch of highway, or a frozen stretch of ice on a lake of similar length.
The Gripen is a fantastic aircraft, a strategists dream come true.
This picture shows a SAAB JAS39 Gripen landing on a rainy roadbase. Downwash is made evident by the foggy cloud above the runaway.
