The certification, carried out with two Brazilian Air Drive Gripen Es, will vastly increase the capabilities of the jet and provides an added functionality to air forces that function each plane varieties.
Embraer, the Brazilian Air Drive (Força Aérea Brasileira – FAB) and Saab introduced on Nov. 14, 2025 that they licensed the F-39 Gripen E (native designation of the JAS39 Gripen E) to be refueled by the KC-390 Millenium following an intensive testing marketing campaign. This Gripen E, essentially the most superior model of the Gripen, is at present operated by Brazil and Sweden, which obtained its first airframe on Oct. 20, 2025.
The take a look at marketing campaign, designated Operation Samaúma by the FAB, was undertaken at Gavião Peixoto, São Paulo, dwelling to Embraer’s facility and the Gripen Flight Check Middle. The photographs launched present the KC-390 refueling at the very least two FAB F-39Es, with the fighters flying in numerous consultant loadouts to evaluate the aerodynamics of each the plane.
A 3rd F-39 can also be seen, which within the video operates as a chase plane. Nevertheless, on condition that the testing marketing campaign passed off over a number of days, every of the plane might have been refueled with completely different load situations.
NEWS | KC-390 Millennium and Gripen E efficiently full refueling certification flights. Learn full information: pic.twitter.com/HDWFVXY27J
— Embraer (@embraer) November 14, 2025
Embraer additionally launched photographs of the company-owned KC-390 used within the refueling certification, which has obtained a brand new paint scheme, to participate within the upcoming Dubai Air Present. The plane now sports activities a light-grey and bluish-grey digital livery.
Gripen E licensed to be refueled by the KC-390
Intensive footage from contained in the cockpits of the F-39Es, the refueling system’s operator console of the KC-390, and the third F-39E that probably served as a chase plane, captured the Millenium’s underwing drogue-and-hose refueling system in numerous phases of launch, connection and separation from the fighters’ port-side retractable refueling probes.
At one level the KC-390 was refueling two Gripens concurrently. The flight take a look at marketing campaign passed off between October and November, with research underway for a 12 months, FAB stated. The aerodynamic and engineering information shall be used for future manufacturing and growth by the respective flight testing and certification authorities.
Embraer’s and Saab’s joint press launch added that the “marketing campaign was coordinated by the Division of Aerospace Science and Know-how (DCTA) from the FAB,” with the involvement of engineers and take a look at pilots of all of the three entities (Saab, Embraer and the FAB). “Through the checks, a variety of flight configurations, speeds and altitudes have been evaluated and confirmed precision throughout in-flight refuelling. Each plane’s latest-generation fly-by-wire programs contributed to the profitable operation, with the KC-390 offering a beneficial wake and the Gripen demonstrating responsiveness in flight,” Embraer stated.
The flight take a look at marketing campaign consisted of two aims. The primary was “qualifying the Gripen E as a receiver for in-flight refuelling,” thereby “validating the fighter’s efficiency, stability, and structural integrity all through the operation.” The second objective was to “confirm the compatibility of each plane throughout the KC-390’s complete flight envelope,” for high-speed, day and night time refuelling.
Chief Operations Officer of Embraer Protection & Safety Walter Pinto Júnior stated within the press launch that the trials exhibit the KC-390 Millennium’s “distinctive multi-mission functionality,” which “permits the airplane to be transformed right into a tanker in a matter of hours, providing unbeatable flexibility to Air Forces worldwide.”
Saab’s head of Flight Testing Mikael Olsson stated that the technical milestone marks a brand new operational attain for the Gripen E, and additional “reinforces the strategic partnership between Brazil and Sweden and Brazil’s function throughout the world Gripen programme ecosystem.”
“The verification of in-flight refuelling between the KC-390 and F-39 Gripen […] is the results of a joint effort combining Swedish expertise, Brazilian engineering and the operational excellence of the Brazilian Air Drive,” stated the FAB’s Colonel Aviator George Luiz Guedes de Oliveira
The Swedish Navy Aviation Authority (SE-MAA) and the FAB’s Industrial Promotion and Coordination Institute (IFI) will use the information for their very own certification and technical evaluation processes, “guaranteeing that each plane adjust to essentially the most demanding worldwide requirements.”
Enhances Brazilian Air Drive functionality
The FAB pressured on how the refueling displays Brazil’s credible indigenous aerospace expertise and the KC-390’s maturity as a tanker-transport assembly worldwide requirements. “With the assist of the KC-390 Millennium plane, the Gripen can, with only one refueling, attain any level in Brazilian territory in just a few hours, together with distant border areas, roughly 3,000 kilometers from Anápolis (GO), the place the Anápolis Air Base (BAAN), headquarters of the Gripens, is situated,” the FAB stated.
The service named use instances like Fight Air Patrols and Composite Air Operations (COMAO) the place the Gripen protects pleasant plane conducting “reconnaissance, floor assaults, paratrooper drops, and troop infiltrations, for instance,” the place the aerial refueling would turn out to be useful.
The Gripens carried completely different load configurations with missiles, bombs, and exterior tanks, and every profile “evaluated at numerous altitudes and speeds to confirm the plane’s habits and the steadiness of the programs.” These embody gasoline switch programs, strain sensors, automated flight controls, place sensors, security valves, and emergency procedures, the place any “incompatibility may end up in collision, gasoline leak, or lack of management.”
O KC-390 Millennium e o F-39E Gripen concluíram com sucesso uma série de voos de certificação de reabastecimento realizada nas instalações da Embraer em Gavião Peixoto, São Paulo. pic.twitter.com/OclCNHXz7B
— Embraer (@embraer) November 14, 2025
Gripen and C-390 operators
In Europe, the Gripen could be refueled by A400Ms and A330 MRTTs of varied European air forces and NATO. The KC-390, the tanker model of the C-390 Millenium cargo plane which Embraer says could be transformed in a matter of hours, provides one other aerial refueling functionality.
That is particularly vital since Sweden, Czech Republic and Lithuania are additionally the Brazilian C-390’s future clients, whereas Hungary already operates each Gripen and C-390s. The refueling certification offers their air forces an natural aerial tanker functionality. Portugal too operates the C-390, whereas the Netherlands, Slovakia and Austria are awaiting their very own Millenniums.
Saab Gripen E and Brazil
Thailand just lately turned the fourth nation to formally select the brand new Gripen variant with 12 jets, after Sweden, Brazil, and Colombia. Sweden has signed on for 60 jets, adopted by 36 for Brazil and as much as 24 for Colombia. Peru can also be in talks to accumulate the jet.
Because the FAB stated: “Qualification as a receiver is a basic step for the longer term certification of the Gripen with different refueling plane, contemplating that every completely different tanker requires particular pair certification.”
Brazil’s 2014 $4.5 billion Gripen deal for 36 plane included 28 F-39Es and eight F-39F. Fifteen of the jets are to be manufactured inside Brazil, at Embraer’s and Saab’s services. These embody the previous’s last manufacturing and meeting line at Gavião Peixoto, in São Paulo.
Saab’s facility in São Bernardo do Campo produces the aerostructures, together with the tail cone, air brakes and ahead fuselage. The FAB obtained the tenth airframe on Jun. 12, 2025, aboard a ship, which is ready to affix the First Air Protection Group (1º GDA) “Jaguar Squadron” at Anápolis Air Base, as per Brazilian experiences.
O KC-390 Millennium, com sua nova identidade visible, será apresentado em exibição estática pela primeira vez no Dubai Airshow 2025 na próxima semana.
Creditos Imagens: Alisson Vilela ( pic.twitter.com/q3pGzk409h
— Embraer (@embraer) November 13, 2025
As for the KC-390s, the FAB presently operates a complete of seven airframes, with the final delivered to the first Transport Group at Galeão Air Base in September 2024. The service is awaiting 12 extra, for a complete order of 19, which Embraer stated it will full by 2034.
