Saab has delivered the fifth and final GlobalEye airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft ordered by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the company announced on 17 September 2024.
The UAE ordered an initial two GlobalEye aircraft from Saab in 2015, placed an order for a third aircraft in 2017 and then contracted Saab for two more in 2020.
“In close partnership with the UAE Air Force, Saab has developed, produced and delivered a fleet of five state-of-the-art GlobalEye aircraft, all in a period of less than 10 years,” Carl-Johan Bergholm, head of Saab’s Surveillance business area, was quoted as saying in a company press release. “This further reinforces Saab’s position as leading provider in the airborne early warning and control segment,” he added.
Derived from the Bombardier Global 6000/6500 aircraft family, the GlobalEye AEW&C platform carries a dorsally mounted Saab Erieye Extended Range active electronically scanned-array radar along with an advanced suite of active and passive sensors that provide long-range detection and identification of objects in the air, at sea and over land. A GlobalEye operating at 35 000 ft can detect low-level threats (at 200 ft) at distances exceeding 458 km.
The aircraft also features a multi-domain command-and-control system.
As well as the five UAE GlobalEyes, three of the aircraft are on order for the Swedish Air Force.
