Saab has unveiled the first GlobalEye airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft ordered by the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) for the Swedish Air Force (SwAF).
The Bombardier Global 6500-based aircraft, which was presented on 15 October 2026, will now enter a phase of testing and verification ahead of its first flight and subsequent delivery to the SwAF.
Sweden has ordered three GlobalEye aircraft from Saab. The first two aircraft were contracted by the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) in 2022, with an option for additional aircraft, and a third GlobalEye was ordered in 2024.
The GlobalEye multi-role AEW&C platform, which can comfortably offer a mission endurance of more than 12 hours, features a dorsally mounted Saab Erieye ER (Extended Range) S-band active electronically scanned-array (AESA) radar as its main sensor. Saab has stated that the Erieye ER radar has an instrumented range “well above 650 km” and that its multi-domain performance allows it to pick up air threats from ballistic missiles to relatively small drones as well as maritime targets down to jet-ski size.
The GlobalEye also has a Leonardo Seaspray 7500E maritime surveillance radar mounted on the underside of the fuselage, an opto-electronic/infrared sensor housed in a stabilised turret beneath the forward fuselage, a suite of electronic support measures (ESM)/electronic intelligence (ELINT) systems, an Automatic Identification System (AIS) to track and identify shipping, IFF and ADS-B transponders to distinguish between friendly and potentially hostile aircraft, and a self-protection suite of laser and radar warning receivers, missile approach warners and integrated countermeasures systems.
Multiple GlobalEye orders
Saab has picked up multiple Global orders over the last six months. On 10 September the Netherlands signed a letter of intent with Sweden for the purchase of a single Saab GlobalEye AEW&C aircraft, while on 17 July Saab announced that it has received an order for two GlobalEyes from “a country in the Middle East region”.
At the NATO Summit in Ankara on 7 July the alliance announced it had selected the GlobalEye platform as its new Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) solution and will procure up to 10 aircraft.
On 27 May, meanwhile, the Canadian government announced it had selected the GlobalEye as the preferred solution to its AEW&C requirement, with the Royal Canadian Air Force having publicly stated its intention to procure between six and eight AEW&C platforms.
Previous to that, beyond the three GlobalEyes ordered by Sweden, five were purchased by the UAE as the launch customer between 2015 and 2021 and France ordered two at the end of 2025.
Before the GlobalEye
The SwAF previously operated two Saab 340-based ASC 890 AEW&C aircraft (known is Swedish service as S-100D Argus platforms) featuring the Erieye S-band AESA radar, but in May 2024 the Swedish government announced that these aircraft would be donated to Ukraine as part of a major military assistance package, with the GlobalEye order having already been placed).
The ASC-890s arrived in Ukraine in August 2025 and were operational by early 2026.
