Saab inducts first Global 6000 for Swedish GlobalEye programme

Saab is now fitting the first of two Global 6000 airframes with its GlobalEye mission equipment for the Swedish Air Force. (Saab)

Saab has inducted the first of two Global 6000 airframes for conversion to the GlobalEye airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) configuration for the Swedish Air Force (SwAF).

The prime contractor for the programme announced the milestone on 26 January, about six months after it officially received the aircraft from Bombardier in Canada in July 2023. With the earlier handover seeing the aircraft receive its interior fittings, Saab and the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) will now fit the military mission systems.

The Swedish government contracted Saab in June 2022 to deliver two GlobalEye aircraft, with the option for two more. The SEK7.3 billion (USD712 million at the time) order will see the two aircraft replace the SwAF's two ageing Saab 340 (ASC 890) Erieye platforms from 2027.

The GlobalEye is built around the Saab Erieye Extended Range (ER) radar that is housed in the same external dorsal ‘plank' as the company's original Erieye system. Equipped with gallium nitride and other technologies, the Erieye ER is an active electronically scanned array (AESA) system that doubles the radar's power efficiency compared with previous Erieye iterations. It has a range in excess of 650 km, which can be extended by focusing the radar's energy.