GlobalEye AEW&C.

Technical Data

• Design

  The Saab GlobalEye is based on the Bombardier Global 6000/6500 long-range business jet family. The Global 6000 configuration is 30.3 m long, 28.7 m wide across the wings, 7.77 m high, has a 94.8 m² wing area, and a maximum take-off weight of 45,132 kg. The carrier aircraft uses a low-mounted supercritical wing swept 35 degrees, winglets, rear fuselage-mounted engines, a T-tail, and retractable tricycle landing gear. The Bombardier Global family has a service ceiling of 51,000 ft (15,545 m), although the GlobalEye's normal surveillance altitude is lower, at 9,000 to 11,000 m (29,528-36,089 ft).

  Saab's conversion requires structural reinforcement because the Bombardier Global was not originally designed to carry a radar above its fuselage. The approximately 10 m-long Erieye ER installation sits longitudinally over the cabin, while the modified aircraft also incorporates an extended vertical tail and ventral strakes to compensate for the aerodynamic changes produced by the mission equipment. Electronic warfare equipment is installed at the wingtips, and additional antennas and sensor apertures are distributed around the aircraft. Electrical generation and cooling are increased to supply the radars, ESM/ELINT, mission computers, operator stations, communications, and self-protection equipment continuously during missions exceeding 11 hours.

  The underlying Global aircraft provides 14.6 m of unobstructed cabin length. Cabin pressurization reaches 10.3 psi, maintaining an equivalent cabin altitude of 4,500 ft at FL450 and 5,680 ft at FL510. This is particularly relevant to an AEW&C aircraft because mission personnel remain at altitude for periods substantially longer than a normal tactical aircraft sortie. The civil passenger interior is logically replaced by several mission workstations, equipment racks, communications systems, and crew facilities.

  The Swedish configuration normally carries two pilots and five mission operators, while the C2 architecture can accommodate up to seven workstations depending on configuration. The GlobalEye can also operate with fewer mission operators for lower-intensity surveillance missions. At the opposite end of the crewing concept, it can fly without airborne mission operators and transmit sensor information to ground stations, turning the aircraft primarily into a high-altitude surveillance and communications node.

• Sensors

  The GlobalEye's primary sensor is the Saab Erieye ER Extended Range, an S-band multi-mode AESA radar installed in the approximately 10 m dorsal antenna fairing. The radar installation weighs close to 1,000 kg and incorporates gallium-nitride transmit/receive technology. Saab attributes a 70% increase in detection range compared with previous Erieye generations to the ER architecture and associated technologies, including GaN. Electronic beam steering allows radar energy and revisit rates to be concentrated on selected sectors or contacts without mechanically rotating the entire antenna like an E-3 Sentry, enabling simultaneous broad-area surveillance and more intensive examination of priority targets.

  The Erieye ER (Extended Range) AESA radar features an instrumented range of 650 km (350 nm). Operating performance logically varies by altitude and threat type, yielding airborne target detection distances exceeding 450 km at 30,000 ft and up to 550 km at 35,000 ft. For low-altitude targets, a GlobalEye cruising at 35,000 ft can detect contacts flying at 200 ft beyond 458 km (247 nm). In comparison, a ground-based radar stationed at an elevation of 2,800 ft offers a horizon limit of roughly 152 km (82 nm) against the same contact. Flying at high altitude expands the radar horizon significantly, delivering over 300 km of additional line-of-sight coverage against low-level threats.

  The Erieye ER radar is mainly intended to track conventional aircraft, low-altitude targets, small targets, and surface contacts while operating in clutter and electronic-jamming conditions. The second principal active sensor is therefore the Leonardo Seaspray 7500E, an X-band AESA radar optimized for maritime and surface surveillance. It provides maritime moving-target indication, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR), and ground moving-target indication (GMTI). SAR generates radar imagery of surface areas independently of daylight and much weather, ISAR exploits target motion to assist vessel classification, and GMTI separates moving ground contacts from stationary terrain. The Seaspray consequently provides a more specialized high-resolution surface surveillance layer beneath the Erieye ER's wide-area air and surface picture.

  The two radars can also work as a detection and identification chain. The Erieye ER can establish a distant surface track before the Seaspray 7500E examines the contact with dedicated maritime modes. The automatic identification system (AIS) can establish whether the vessel is broadcasting a cooperative identity; ESM (Electronic Support Measures) and ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) can detect associated electromagnetic emissions; and the EO/IR (Electro-Optical/Infra-Red) sensor can then be directed toward the track for passive observation. Saab says the GlobalEye is capable of detecting small maritime contacts including jet skis, while the combined radar system is intended to detect objects down to submarine periscope size.

  Electro-optical surveillance is provided by an EO/IR turret, namely the FLIR Star Safire 380HD in the Swedish S 106 configuration. It provides visible and infrared imagery for surveillance and target identification without requiring an active radar transmission. Its principal value is therefore not a wide-area detection but the confirmation and classification of contacts already localized by radar, ESM, or other sensors. In maritime surveillance, EO/IR sensors can distinguish physical characteristics that cannot always be established from a radar track or AIS message alone.

  Passive electromagnetic surveillance is provided by ESM/ELINT equipment, allowing the GlobalEye to detect and characterize radar and other electromagnetic emissions without transmitting toward the emitter. Electronic detections can be correlated with the Erieye ER and Seaspray tracks inside the mission system. A higher GlobalEye configuration adds dedicated signals intelligence (SIGINT), expanding passive intelligence collection beyond the ESM/ELINT capability required for tactical surveillance. Exact frequency coverage, sensitivity, geolocation accuracy, and receiver numbers are not disclosed.

  Identification equipment includes IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) and ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) for airborne contacts and AIS for maritime traffic. These systems provide part of the identification information but are not substitutes for radar, as hostile, non-cooperative, or malfunctioning contacts may provide invalid transmissions. The GlobalEye instead correlates these signals with independently detected radar and electronic tracks, allowing operators to distinguish between a cooperative contact whose declared identity matches its observed position and behavior and a contact requiring additional investigation.

• Engine and flight capabilities

  The Global 6000-based GlobalEye uses two Rolls-Royce BR710A2-20 turbofan engines, each producing 65.6 kN (14,750 lbf), giving approximately 131.2 kN (29,500 lbf) combined thrust. The engines are mounted on the rear fuselage and use FADEC control. Against the 45,132 kg maximum take-off weight, the installed static thrust corresponds to a maximum-weight thrust-to-weight ratio close to 0.30, before differences caused by altitude, temperature, and flight conditions are considered.

  Normal cruise is approximately Mach 0.85, corresponding to roughly 900 km/h under representative high-altitude conditions, while the underlying Global 6000 reaches Mach 0.89 (~950 km/h). The combination of business jet cruise speed and more than 11 hours of endurance allows the GlobalEye to reach a distant surveillance orbit more rapidly than the earlier Saab 340 turboprop AEW&C aircraft. The resulting operational benefit is not additional radar range but a reduction in transit time and a greater proportion of the sortie potentially available for surveillance.

  The GlobalEye's typical operational altitude is between 30,000 ft and 35,000 ft (9,100 m to 10,700 m), while the Global family's maximum service ceiling reaches 51,000 ft or 15,545 m. This range offers the optimal balance between the flight endurance and radar line-of-sight coverage. Mission endurance exceeds 11 hours for the original Global 6000-based configuration, which possesses a published range of 6,000 nmi (11,112 km). Moreover, AEW&C operations logically trade fuel between outbound transit, time on station, return transit, and reserves.

  The newer Global 6500 introduces an optimized wing and Rolls-Royce Pearl turbofan engines, with 9% greater thrust and up to 13% lower fuel consumption. Maximum speed increases to Mach 0.90, while the underlying aircraft now reaches 6,600 nmi (12,200 km), 600 nmi (1,110 km) beyond the preceding range figure. Newer GlobalEye variants possess more than 12 hours of operational endurance, as the additional efficiency can be traded between greater transit distance, longer time on station, and fuel reserve rather than being used exclusively to maximize point-to-point range.

• Avionics and onboard equipment

  The GlobalEye's central mission architecture is an integrated multi-domain command-and-control system combining Erieye ER, Seaspray 7500E, EO/IR, ESM/ELINT, IFF/ADS-B, AIS, and information received from external sources. Sensor information is correlated into a common tactical picture rather than requiring operators to interpret each system independently. A contact can consequently combine an Erieye radar track, an electronic emission, an IFF or AIS response, and an EO/IR observation under one track identity, giving operators several independent sources for classification and identification.

  Furthermore, on March 23, 2026, Saab signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Canadian company Cohere to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-powered applications for the GlobalEye, initially focusing on data-driven mission support, high-volume information processing and predictive maintenance, including automatic object classification, anomaly detection, threat prioritization, multi-sensor data correlation and early identification of component degradation within secure on-premises systems.

  The current GlobalEye standard mission arrangement identifies five operator stations, while configurations with up to seven C2 workstations are possible. Operator positions use 30-inch high-resolution color displays and are interchangeable between functions. Instead of permanently assigning one physical console to one radar, the mission crew can distribute air surveillance, maritime surveillance, electronic surveillance, identification, fighter control, and command functions according to the operational situation. Lower-intensity missions can be conducted with only one or two occupied consoles.

  The Swedish AEW&C aircraft also supports Link 16, additional tactical data links, voice communications, satellite communications, and a broadband satellite link. These systems allow the GlobalEye to distribute tracks and surveillance information to fighters, ships, ground-based air defense units, and command centers rather than retaining the picture aboard the aircraft. Satellite communication (SATCOM) provides beyond-line-of-sight connectivity when the aircraft operates outside terrestrial communications coverage or when the surveillance picture must be distributed across a geographically dispersed force.

  This connectivity also allows the GlobalEye to operate with no mission operators aboard, transmitting sensor outputs to ground-based command facilities for exploitation. A fully crewed aircraft can instead act as an airborne command center, while reduced-crewing configurations occupy the intermediate position. The GlobalEye can therefore separate the location of the sensors from the location of the personnel exploiting their information, an important characteristic when integrating the aircraft into distributed command-and-control networks.

  The self-protection suite of the GlobalEye includes radar-warning receivers, laser-warning receivers and countermeasure dispensers, with autonomous operation and pilot control available. These systems provide threat warning and defensive countermeasures but logically do not make the GlobalEye a penetrating reconnaissance aircraft like the Boeing EA-18G Growler. Its primary defensive advantage remains its ability to operate at high altitude and exploit the Erieye ER's hundreds of kilometers of surveillance reach while remaining outside heavily defended airspace.

• Missions

  The GlobalEye's principal mission is airborne early warning and control (AEW&C). In this case, the Erieye ER establishes and maintains the long-range air picture, while the C2 system allows operators to classify contacts, monitor threats, distribute tracks, and support the control of friendly aircraft. At 35,000 ft, the cited geometry gives more than 460 km of detection distance against a target at 200 ft, extending warning time against low-flying aircraft, cruise missiles and UAVs that can remain below the horizon of surface radars until much closer to the defended area.

  The GlobalEye simultaneously performs maritime surveillance, using the Erieye ER for wide-area search and the Seaspray 7500E for dedicated surface detection, SAR, ISAR and moving-target modes. AIS, ESM/ELINT and EO/IR provide additional identification channels. The GlobalEye can therefore maintain the regional air picture while searching shipping lanes, coastlines and maritime approaches during the same sortie rather than requiring a physical conversion from an AEW&C configuration to a maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) configuration.

  For ground surveillance, the Seaspray's GMTI modes detect moving ground contacts while SAR generates radar imagery independently of daylight. This allows the Swedish aircraft to monitor vehicle movement and other surface activity while the Erieye ER continues air surveillance. No SAR resolution, GMTI minimum target velocity, or maximum ground-surveillance area are disclosed, so these values cannot be assigned numerically.

  The GlobalEye also conducts electronic surveillance and intelligence collection through ESM/ELINT, with dedicated SIGINT available in the highest offered mission configuration. Passive electromagnetic detection can reveal the presence and characteristics of aircraft, ships and ground installations that are emitting, and the resulting information can be correlated with radar tracks. This creates an additional detection and classification channel without requiring the GlobalEye to illuminate the emitter.

  The aircraft also performs airborne battle management and fighter control through its C2 workstations, tactical data links and communications suite. Mission operators can manage the tactical picture and support control of friendly forces from the aircraft, or the same sensor information can be transmitted to ground-based command centers. The GlobalEye can consequently function as both a surveillance aircraft and a networked command node, depending on the number of operators aboard and the customer's command architecture.

  Other missions include search-and-rescue support, particularly over maritime areas, where radar moving-target modes and EO/IR can search large areas and investigate individual contacts. The UAE requirement additionally includes ballistic missile detection, with the GlobalEye contributing early-warning and tracking information to the broader air and missile defense network. The GlobalEye carries no interceptor and therefore performs the detection, tracking, identification, command-and-control, and sharing of information rather than the physical engagement of the target.