Depends on the missiles it gets honestly. Thailand would be able to get AIM-120C-5/7 and IRIS-T with the Gripen, but considering thy aren’t in game it would most likely be either the same as the current Gripen C or maybe get AIM-120C-5 if that is introduced with other aircraft too.
It’s not a bad aircraft and I probably did underestimate it a bit, but it would still be carrying 4 AMRAAMs against F/A-18s with 10.
Because Thailand alone, while being a help, still leaves Japan leagues behind nations such as Britain or France in terms of future potential.
With other countries also going for regional / themed multi-nation subtrees (e.g. Commonwealth, BeNeLux, Nordic) it’s rather likely that something similar is done for Japan. And the only well received and coherent group of nations for that role would be founding ASEAN nations, which is more reasonable than a whole ASEAN tree but still gives all represented nations a common theme.
Yeah as much as I want to see ASEAN for Japan, I don’t think we have evidence right now to confirm that it will go to Japan, though Thailand seems to be secure
The leaked Indonesian and Singaporean equipment was initially leaked for Japan. A later leak then showed that Gaijin changed their plans towards adding them to China (possibly alongside ASEAN).
With how badly that idea was received Gaijin scrapped their Squadron SG Leopard 2A4, likely meant to test players reception similar to the Thai F-5. Now it’s actually likely they revert back to their original plan.