Overview
- NATO announced on July 7 that it will open formal negotiations with Saab to buy up to ten GlobalEye airborne early warning and control aircraft, and reporting says eleven member states back the plan.
- Saab has said deliveries could begin around 2030 if talks and contracts are concluded quickly, but no purchase order has been signed yet.
- The selection will phase out the alliance’s 14 Boeing E-3A (B707) AWACS planes that average roughly 44 years in service and follows NATO’s 2023 choice of Boeing’s E-7 Wedgetail, a plan that was abandoned after the U.S. scaled back support in late 2025.
- Moving to GlobalEye, which uses the Bombardier Global 6500 platform and can stay airborne more than 11 hours, creates a split AEW&C fleet that will require formal agreements on systems integration, sustainment and data sharing to preserve coalition interoperability.
- The deal promises industrial work and jobs for Sweden and its suppliers and could shift NATO procurement away from U.S.-developed systems, a change that may prompt other allies such as Canada, France and Sweden to pursue matching or complementary GlobalEye buys.