JAS 39 Gripen (the Griffon) is designed for the high demands put on flying performance, flexibility, effectiveness, survivability and availability the future air combat environment will put. The designation JAS stands for Jakt (Fighter), Attack (Attack) and Spaning (Reconnaissance) and means every Gripen can fullfill all three mission types. Flying properties and performance are optimised for fighter missions with high demands on speed, acceleration and turning performance. The combination of delta wing and canards gives the JAS 39 Gripen very good take off and landing performance and superb flying characteristics. The totally integrated avionics makes it a "programmable" aircraft. With the built in flexibility and development potential the whole JAS 39 Gripen system will retain and enhance its effectiveness and potential well into the 21:st century. Gripen affords far more flexibility than earlier generations of combat aircraft, and it's operating costs will only be about two thirds of those for Viggen, in spite of it beeing able to in all areas perform at least as well or slightly better, and in some cases much better. This while not beeing an expensive aircraft to purchase either. Test flights As of the beginning of 1998, over 2,500 test flights had successfully been completed. Separation test with all air to ground, anti ship weapons and Sidewinders have been concluded successfully. The Manoeuver Load Limiter will let the pilots give full stick and rudder commands at all times, but by taking into account the present weight, what kinds of external loads are carried, speed, altitude and other data in order to obtain maximum performance enabling the pilots to concentrate on the tactical situation. The export version, beeing marketed jointly by British Aerospace and Saab, will not be identical to the Swedish air force version. How it will differ naturally depends on what customers want. It will be compatible with NATO systems.