GlobalEye

GlobalEye is Saab AB ’s airborne early warning and control aircraft, built on the long-range Bombardier Global 6000 business jet airframe and in service since 2020. The system entered the market as a successor to Saab’s earlier Saab 340 and Saab 2000 Erieye platforms, scaling the same dorsal-radar concept onto a larger, longer-legged airframe. Its selling point is breadth: a single aircraft watches the air, the sea surface, and ground targets at the same time, rather than specialising in one domain.

The technical heart of the system is the Erieye ER radar, a gallium-nitride active electronically scanned array mounted in a flat dorsal “plank” along the spine of the aircraft. The GaN module generation gives the radar longer detection range than the legacy Erieye fitted to the Saab 340 AEW&C, particularly against low-observable and low-altitude targets. Surface and ground surveillance comes from a separate Leonardo Seaspray 7500E maritime radar in a ventral fairing, supplemented by an electro-optical/infrared turret, electronic support measures, and self-protection. A mission system fuses the feeds and presents a single tactical picture to the operator consoles in the cabin. The Global 6000 host provides roughly eleven hours of endurance, which lets a single jet hold a station that would otherwise require rotation between two smaller AEW platforms.

The United Arab Emirates was the launch customer, signing in 2015 for what eventually grew to five aircraft; the first was handed over in April 2020. Sweden followed, with a 2022 order for two GlobalEyes — later raised to three, and then four — to replace the ageing ASC 890 fleet, with deliveries running through the second half of the decade. France committed in 2023 to acquire two as a stop-gap replacement for its E-3F Sentry fleet, the first foreign sale of GlobalEye to a NATO European member outside the existing Erieye user community. Saab has also pitched the platform to Canada, Denmark, and other operators reassessing AEW capability in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Development continues incrementally rather than through clean variants: software-defined mission system updates, additional ESM bands, and integration of new datalinks are rolled in across the production line. Against the Boeing E-7 Wedgetail, GlobalEye trades raw radar aperture for endurance, multi-domain coverage, and a lower acquisition and operating cost on a business-jet airframe — a trade that has resonated with mid-sized air forces looking to replace 1970s-generation AWACS without committing to a converted airliner.