Saab J35XS

This page is about the premium Swedish jet fighter Saab J35XS. For other versions, see SAAB 35 Draken (Family).

Saab J35XS

Saab J35XS

Sweden

VII Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
10.3	11.0	11.0

Class:

PREMIUM

Fighter

Jet fighter

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Description

The J35XS was part of a deal between Finland and Sweden so that the last one could provide Finland with different variants of the J35 Draken. At the beginning only second hand J35Fs, Bs and Cs were provided with minor modifications but Finland requested an upgrade variant of the J35F, more comparable to the J35J standard. Thus the J35XS was conceived, it had better countermeasures, electronics, a better radar (but still very similar), more weapon pylons and access to the RB-27 and RB-28 missiles, as well as the RB24J (AIM-9P). A total of 12 aircraft were produced of this variant, and was the only one assembled in Finland, while the kits were produced in Sweden by SAAB. In real life, the J35XS was also able to fire the Soviet R-13M1 (export variant of the R-13M) that was extensively used by Finland in their MiG-21s.

Introduced in Update "Apex Predators", the J35XS plays like all Drakens, fast and with good AoA capabilities. Of course, while doing manoeuvres it loses all of its speed, but it has a very interesting double delta wing design, that allows the aircraft to retain energy at high speeds at the cost of agility. It has access to 6 x RB24Js which are just AIM-9Ps. This missile has a decent range and acceleration, as well as 20Gs of pull. While these don't get you consistent destructions, they still perform decently when launched at unaware opponents. It also has access to 12 countermeasures, not a lot, however being deployed 1 by 1, they can last for a good time and while being better than nothing, they are ultimately sub-optimal at best. This means that taking chaff is not recommended, and thus flying close to the ground to avoid radar locks is highly advised. Also, it uses an IRST coupled with its radar. This allows to lock to the heat signature of jets and slaving the missile to that lock, but the locked target wont receive a warning unlike radar, that triggers the RWR if it's able to detect the lock. The problem is that IRST can't identify if the lock is friend or enemy, so watch out for friendly fire.

General info

Flight performance

Air brakes

Allows you to dramatically reduce the flight speed by releasing special flaps

Drogue parachute

Reduces braking distance when landing on any runway

Max speed

at 9 000 m2 250 km/h

Turn time25 s

Max altitude12 500 m

EngineSvenska Flygmotor RM 6С

Type

Cooling systemAir

Take-off weight14 t

The Saab J35XS turns very well, however turning too hard at lower speeds can also lead to a "superstall", which may cause a crash. Tight turns also lead to a significant loss of energy/speed.

Being that the Saab J35XS is also a double-delta wing, its sustained turn rate is fantastic, the energy retention not so much, thus leaving the aircraft in a much-to-be-desired energy and speed state. An issue most pilots may run into in a dogfight is an issue with only one sidemounted Akan m/55 30 mm, making getting good shots in a dogfight difficult.

Characteristics	Max speed (km/h at 9,000 m)		Max altitude (metres)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (metres/second)		Take-off run (metres)
	AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
Stock	___	___	12500	__._	__._	__._	__._	900
Upgraded	2,390	2,250		24.1	25.0	208.2	177.0

Details

Features
Combat flaps	Take-off flaps	Landing flaps	Air brakes	Arrestor gear	Drogue chute
X	X	X	✓	X	✓

Limits
Wings (km/h)	Gear (km/h)	Flaps (km/h)			Max Static G
		Combat	Take-off	Landing	+	-
1,417	500	-	-	-	~13	~6

Optimal velocities (km/h)
Ailerons	Rudder	Elevators	Radiator
< 850	< 700	< 700	N/A

Engine performance

Engine			Aircraft mass
Engine name		Number	Basic mass		Wing loading (full fuel)
Svenska Flygmotor RM 6C		1	8,255 kg		210 kg/m2
Engine characteristics			Mass with fuel (no weapons load)			Max Gross Weight
Weight (each)	Type		6m fuel	20m fuel	21m fuel
1,400 kg	Afterburning axial-flow turbojet		8,909 kg	10,284 kg	10,435 kg	11,634 kg
Maximum engine thrust @ 0 m (RB/SB)			Thrust to weight ratio @ 0 m (WEP)
Condition	100%	WEP	6m fuel	20m fuel	21m fuel	MGW
Stationary	5,575 kgf	8,028 kgf	0.90	0.78	0.77	0.70
Optimal	5,575 kgf (0 km/h)	10,126 kgf (1,250 km/h)	1.14	0.98	0.97	0.88

Survivability and armour

Flares/Chaff

Aircraft countermeasures to distract IR and radar-guided missiles and also AA radar

Crew1 person

Speed of destruction

Structural0 km/h

Gear500 km/h

As with all delta or double-delta wing configurations, your silhouette is significantly larger than other contemporary aircraft you'll face from 9.7-11.7. The fuel tanks are located close to the center of the fuselage, meaning that most rounds that connect with your aircraft will likely cause you to burn up. The engine is also massive and fragile, meaning that even a glancing blow from an enemy's gun can critically damage your engine.

Flight characteristics are also heavily damaged with even minor damage to the wings, particularly if the damage is uneven, greatly increasing the chances of getting into a irrecoverable flat spin. As with most aircraft of the BR, you will not be able to survive a missile if it comes into contact with your aircraft.

Modifications and economy

Repair cost

AB2 147

RB6 206

SB5 875

Crew training10 000

Experts1 160 000

Aces2 800

Research Aces2 150 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

2 × 130 / 310 / 600 %

2 × 232 / 232 / 232 %

Modifications

Flight performance	Survivability	Weaponry
Compressor Engine G-suit	Fuselage repair Airframe Wings repair Cover EFS	aden_belt_pack Flares/Chaff m/56d aden_new_gun m/57 RB24J

Armaments

Ballistic Computer
CCIP (Guns)	CCIP (Rockets)	CCIP (Bombs)	CCRP (Bombs)

Offensive armament

The Saab J35XS is armed with:

• 1 x 30 mm Akan m/55 cannon, wing-mounted (120 rpg)
• 12 x large calibre countermeasures

Suspended armament

The Saab J35XS can be outfitted with the following ordnance:

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
m/56D rockets	4, 6							4, 6
srak m/57B rockets		19		19	19		19
RB24 missiles	1		1	1	1	1		1
RB24J missiles	1		1	1	1	1		1
510 l drop tanks				1	1

Default weapon presets
2 x 510 l drop tanks 6 x RB24J missiles 12 x m/56D rockets 76 x srak m/57B rockets 4 x RB24J missiles + 76 x srak m/57B rockets 4 x RB24J missiles + 12 x m/56D rockets 2 x RB24J missiles + 8 x m/56D rockets + 76 x srak m/57B rockets

Usage in battles

The J35XS is played as a very capable dogfighter/interceptor in War Thunder. At its BR, it gets a set of 6 x RB24J air-to-air missiles (AIM-9P), that even while only rear aspect, have a good range and decent acceleration, as well as the ability to pull 20Gs maximum. Not only that, the aircraft gets a powerful radar with a maximum of 90 km of detection range and 45 km for lock range.

The J35XS also features an IRST, a rare sight in jets, and even rarer below 11.0. IRST stands for Infrared Search and Track and allows to detect infrared signals from rear and front aspect, and locking them. Unlike SARH, this mode does not have an IFF system, which means that it cant identify if the aircraft locked/detected is an ally or an enemy. This can prove very dangerous in Simulator Battles, when it's not possible identifying if an aircraft is allied or not at long ranges. Still, a good combination in these situations is using the IRST in close ranges while using the radar at long ranges, this will ensure that the enemy aircraft is not warned if you are locked using the IRST. Apart from that, you can use the IRST to lock missiles easier and shoot them while manoeuvring and maintaining the lock.

The J35XS has a limited fuel load of 20 minutes, and while the afterburner is not very fuel hungry, it will still leave you without fuel in EC maps if not careful. Without the afterburner you will top at Mach 0.96 with 100% thrust. You will also loose a lot of speed while turning, of course, this means that you can pull very tight turns and surprise your opponents with shots or missile launches. One of the biggest inconvenience with the J35XS is the cannon placement, while the cannon deals decent damage, the offset gun makes aiming very hard and lining up shots rather difficult, it's recommended playing a little in AB matches to get used to how your gun behaves, before participating in RB or SB.

The aircraft has access to only two air to ground options, the M/56D and M/57B rockets, the M/56D is the only useful against ground targets, since it has a HEAT warhead with good penetration values, but it's quite heavy and slow. The 57B in the other hand uses a HE warhead, but it's too small, with only 15 mm of penetration and 1.14 kg of explosive mass, that wont kill anything at high BRs even with a direct hit.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Good speed
• Effective high calibre flares/chaffs
• Great turn rate at medium - low speeds
• Strong in a downtier
• Has IRST

Cons:

• Bleeds a lot of speed during sustained turns
• Janky gun placement makes it hard to aim
• Horrible performance in uptiers
• Very limited count of flares/chaffs
• Average turn speed above ~900 km/h
• No RWR

History

Finland obtained the Swedish SAAB J35 Draken in 1970, as part of a collaboration between the two countries so that Sweden could provide the Finnish Air Force with J35 aircraft of different variants. At the beginning Finland only received second hand models like the J35F, J35B and SK35C. However the J35XS variant was made by Finnish request and built as a kit assembled by Valmet in Finland. Valmet was also allowed to produce the spare parts for this aircraft. The XS stands for Export Suomi (Export Finland).

The J35XS was highly based on the F variant, and could be considered an intermediate step between the more advanced J35J and the J35F. The new aircraft, fitted more weapon pylons, a better countermeasure suit and different radar model.

The Draken was flown by the Finnish Air Force alongside the Soviet MiG-21, because of logistics, all SAAB J35s in Finland, including the J35XS, had the ability to use the soviet made R-13M1, that was quite different to the R-60s used by soviet aircraft by that point. Finland also acquired the Falcon missiles (RB-27) and the RB-28 to be used in their brand new Draken fighters.

For the J35XS, it was sometimes also referred as J35S or DKS 35 (DK stands for Draken, but for practical reasons most of the time they remained in service with the Swedish prefixes). At the beginning, only the second hand J35s were delivered, but because of their lack of countermeasures and/or electronics, Finland requested the production of the J35XS, that was tested on trials in 1974 after being completed by Valmet (designation DK-201). Piloted by Swedish SAAB test pilot KG Liljeqvist, the XS results were successful and soon the total of 12 units were assembled by Sweden.

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the Saab J35XS from live.warthunder.com.

Images

• 

  J35XS flares, 6 x RB24Js

• 

  J35XS afterburner off

• 

  J35XS afterburner on

Videos

Saab 35FS: A Basic Review - Tims Variety

See also

Related development

• SAAB 35 Draken (Family)

External links

• [Wikipedia] Saab 35 Draken
• [Aeroseum] J 35 flying overseas
• [Milavia] SAAB J 35 Draken - MILAVIA Aircraft
• [Pickled Wings] SAAB J-35 DRAKEN – THE SCANDINAVIAN SURPRISE

Swedish Aeroplane Company Ltd. (SAAB)
	Pre-SAAB: SA / ASJA
SA 'Jaktfalken'	J6B
SAAB 17	B17A · B17B · S17BS
SAAB 18	B18A · B18B · T18B · T18B (57)
SAAB 21	J21A-1 · J21A-2 · A21A-3 · J21RA · A21RB
SAAB 29 'Tunnan'	J29A · A29B · J29D · J29F
SAAB 32 'Lansen'	J32B · A32A · A32A Röd Adam
SAAB 35 'Draken'	J35A · J35D
SAAB 37 'Viggen'	JA37C · JA37D · JA37DI · JA37DI F21 · AJ37 · AJS37
SAAB 39 'Gripen'	JAS39A · JAS39C
SAAB 105	SK60B · SAAB-105G
License Production	B3C (Ju 86K)
Export	SAAB-105OE · J35XS · ▄JAS39C · ◔JAS39EBS HU C

Sweden jet aircraft
Fighters	J21RA
	J29A · A29B · J29D · J29F
	J32B
	J34
	J35A · J35D
	JA37C · JA37D · JA37DI · JA37DI F21
	JAS39A · JAS39C
Strike aircraft	A21RB
	A32A · A32A Röd Adam
	A28B
	AJ37 · AJS37
	SK60B · SAAB-105G
Export	SAAB-105OE
Finland	▄Vampire FB 52A · ▄MiG-21bis · Saab J35XS