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Inside Sweden’s Plans to Upgrade Ukraine’s Old Soviet Fighters
Ukraine’s Soviet-era jets aren’t retiring anytime soon, and that’s by necessity, not nostalgia. So, the next best option? Give them a facelift, courtesy of Sweden’s aerospace giant Saab.
On May 23, 2025, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Defense for Aviation Development, Oleksandr Kozenko, sat down with a Swedish delegation led by Saab’s Director for Ukraine Affairs, Thomas Lindén. The mission: figure out how to make legacy Ukrainian airframes fly like they were built this century, specifically by integrating Swedish-made avionics, electronic warfare systems, and radar.
This isn’t a paper exercise. Ukraine has already pulled off some Frankenstein-grade innovation under fire, like adapting AGM-88 HARM missiles to MiG-29s using iPads as fire control solutions. Or slapping Storm Shadows on Su-24s using NATO pylon adapters. Saab’s upgrades would professionalize this kind of workarounds into hardened, survivable combat systems.
The concept is simple but impactful: bolt Saab’s electronic warfare tools, radar tech, and threat countermeasures onto Ukrainian Su-27s, MiG-29s, Su-24s, and Su-25s to make them deadlier and harder to kill.
Think of it less like a new lease on life, and more like dragging Cold War jets into the drone-saturated battlespace of 2025.
