Aldarion
Neoreactionary Monarchist
And that is what matters with Gripen: it has been designed for road basing. There is a difference between "taking off from a road" and "operating from a road base".Any modern jet fighter can operate (more or less) from roads.
If said road is certified to that weight - hint, many good quality roads are, but cheap roads/roads without maintenance are not.
They can land (if said road has enough free space on the sides) and take off.
But the necessary support units are not present, so is little more than a PR stunt.
And very few countries have mobile support units for that.
But doing one or two flights from a piece of autobahn? Is (relatively) easy. Operate a combat unit in wartime? Not the same, by a wide margin.
Of course, that will hardly help if the Communist government cuts off your parts supplies because you are fighting their brethren or something...