Brazilian Gripen E aircraft participate in first multi-national exercise outside the country

Two F-39E Gripen aircraft taxi on a runway in the Atacama Desert, Chile. (Saab)

Six Saab F-39E Gripen aircraft from the Brazilian Air Force participated in the multi-domain SALITRE 2026 exercise in Chile, the company announced on 14 July.

The aircraft carried out air defence, escort and patrol missions in the first instance of the Brazilian aircraft performing in a multinational operation outside Brazil.

The aircraft operated from Cerro Moreno Air Base in Antofagasta, Chile alongside 1,500 military personnel and 60 aircraft, according to Saab. Participating countries included Chile, Argentina, Colombia, the United States, and Paraguay.

According to Saab, the Brazilian Gripens operated under a single command and in coalition, conducting a host of “conducted escort, sweep, combat air patrol and air defence missions, both within visual range (WVR) and beyond visual range (BVR), employing their electronic warfare suite and tactical systems such as the active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar and the infrared search and track (IRST) passive target search sensor”.

Lieutenant Colonel Vítor Bombonato, Commander of the 1st Air Defence Group (1º GDA), said the Gripen E's systems and sensors allowed for faster decision making and information sharing during the exercise in the Atacama Desert.

“Even though this was the first time Brazilian pilots had flown in this region, when we arrived here, the environment felt very familiar from an operational perspective,” he said. “We could have flown directly from Anápolis to Antofagasta, covering this long distance without the need for in-flight refueling.”

Saab said that the Gripen fighters completed more than 50 sorties and accumulated over 100 flight hours during the exercise with high availability rates.

For more, please see: Saab delivers first Gripen F to Brazilian Air Force