Saab raises GlobalEye conversion target to six surveillance aircraft per year
Total orders for the Swedish company’s system could reach 29 of the heavily adapted Global 6000/6500s.
With its GlobalEye system currently on order for three nations and several additional customers waiting in the wings, Saab intends to further boost its conversion rate to six of the surveillance aircraft per year.
Saab earlier this month rolled out the first of three GlobalEyes on contract for home nation Sweden at its Linkoping site, having previously delivered a five-strong fleet to launch operator the United Arab Emirates.
“Sweden will get this capability in early 2027 in operation,” says Saab chief executive Micael Johansson of the recently unveiled asset. Its air force currently lacks an airborne early warning and control capability, with Stockholm having donated its two Saab 340 Erieye aircraft to Ukraine.
Another two Erieye ER radar-equipped GlobalEyes will be produced for the French air force, while Saab earlier this year also announced a two-aircraft sale to a still undisclosed new buyer for the heavily adapted Bombardier Global 6000/65000.
Market interest
Beyond those aircraft, Saab is currently negotiating a deal to supply up to six examples to Canada, while a group of NATO nations in early July outlined their intention to acquire up to 10. Most recently, the Netherlands also announced a plan to acquire a single example to be operated jointly with the Swedish air force’s assets.
Should those prospective deals all come to fruition, Saab will have sold a total of 29 GlobalEyes to six nations and the 11-member alliance grouping.
“In surveillance, we have to go from two aircraft per year to six, looking at the market interest and the contracts that we are now getting into the business,” Johansson says of the company’s GlobalEye ramp-up.
Saab had previously outlined a plan to double its conversion capacity to four GlobalEyes annually in Linkoping by 2030. The further rate rise would be possible via a proposed new hub that will be established in Canada if Ottawa moves ahead with its planned buy.
“Negotiations are ongoing… [and] we are moving ahead according to plan,” Johansson said during a third-quarter earnings call on 23 October.
He also says that a government-to-government deal between Sweden and the Netherlands for the latter’s lone example could be finalised “during the [rest of this] year”.
Fighter focus
Regarding Saab’s offer to also supply Ottawa with its Gripen E fighter, Johansson says he will be attending the Canadian Aerospace Summit in the nation’s capital on 27-28 October.
“I will have more of a feeling where we are after that conference,” he says.
Saab is pitching its fighter as part of a possible mixed solution to operate alongside Lockheed Martin F-35As for the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Ottawa has so far ordered 16 of the US stealth fighters from an originally planned 88-unit deal, but its government has been reviewing its options for further orders amid deteriorating political relations with the US.
Canada is in talks for six GlobalEyes, while Saab is also pitching its Gripen E as a successor to the Boeing F/A-18 Hornet. Source: Saab
The Swedish airframer is also talking to local industry about plans to establish an in-country assembly line for the Gripen should it secure an order to equip the RCAF.
“We are running a campaign to convince everyone that it’s a good match to have a dual fleet, where the F-35 is good at certain things and Gripen gives combat mass perspective and can be used at dispersed air bases,” Johansson says.
“We have a fantastic offer, but it is still a political decision to take for prime minister [Mark] Carney,” he notes.
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