NATO Selects Swedish Saab GlobalEye AEW&C to Replace U.S. E-3A AWACS Fleet for Drone and Missile Tracking.

NATO has selected Saab’s GlobalEye airborne early warning and control aircraft as its future AEW&C platform, with Saab confirming on July 7, 2026, that negotiations could cover up to ten aircraft to replace the Alliance’s Boeing E-3A AWACS fleet. The choice strengthens NATO’s ability to detect aircraft, missiles, drones, and maritime threats across wide areas as Russia increases long-range strike activity and electronic warfare pressure.

GlobalEye combines long-range radar, command-and-control functions, and multi-domain surveillance in a modern airborne platform designed to track threats in the air, at sea, and on land. For NATO, the aircraft offers a faster and more survivable way to maintain persistent situational awareness, improve air defense coordination, and support deterrence beyond the planned retirement of the current AWACS fleet after 2035.

Related topic: British Army to Pair AH-64E Apache Helicopters with 24 Armed Drone Wingmen by 2030.

NATO has selected Saab's GlobalEye airborne early warning and control aircraft to replace its aging E-3A AWACS fleet, adding long-range air, maritime, and ground surveillance capabilities for future Alliance deterrence and command-and-control missions (Picture source: Saab).

The baseline NATO problem is not the absence of radar coverage, but the shortage of high-altitude, mobile sensors capable of seeing beyond the horizon and controlling air operations over very large areas. NATO currently operates 14 E-3A AWACS aircraft from Geilenkirchen, Germany, with forward operating locations in Türkiye, Greece, Italy, and Norway. These Boeing 707-derived aircraft entered NATO service in the early 1980s and remain among the few military assets owned and operated directly by the Alliance. NATO lists the E-3A’s surveillance coverage at more than 120,000 square miles from 30,000 feet, with low-altitude target detection within about 400 km and medium-altitude detection within about 520 km. The aircraft carry no armament; their value lies in air surveillance, command and control, battle management, and communications.

GlobalEye changes the replacement discussion because it is not a like-for-like update of the E-3A’s rotating radar dome concept. The aircraft is based on the Bombardier Global 6000/6500 family and combines Saab’s Erieye Extended Range radar with maritime surveillance radar, electro-optical and infrared sensors, electronic support and electronic intelligence equipment, AIS, IFF/ADS-B, satellite communications, voice communications, data links, and a multi-domain command-and-control suite. Saab lists an instrumented range of more than 350 nautical miles (about 650 km), more than 12 hours of operational endurance, and the ability to use airfields with a length of about 6,500 feet. Those numbers are operationally important because they influence how many aircraft NATO would need to maintain continuous surveillance orbits over the Baltic region, the Black Sea approaches, the High North, or the Mediterranean.

The aircraft has no missiles, bombs, cannon, or offensive weapon stations. Its “armament,” in practical military terms, is its sensor and communications package. The main sensor is the Erieye ER active electronically scanned array radar mounted in the 10-meter dorsal fairing above the fuselage. Saab describes it as an adaptive AESA radar able to focus energy on selected sectors or targets rather than relying on a mechanically rotating antenna. This matters tactically because radar time, energy management, and update rate are central to tracking low-flying cruise missiles, small unmanned aerial vehicles, aircraft using terrain masking, and targets operating in heavy clutter or jamming. Saab also states that Erieye ER uses gallium nitride technology, which allows higher transmitted energy and contributes to longer detection ranges compared with earlier Erieye radars.

The maritime and ground-surveillance functions are equally relevant for NATO because the Alliance’s eastern and northern flanks are not purely air-defense problems. Saab’s technical description states that GlobalEye can detect sea targets out to the elevated horizon, track small boats at long distance, and, through the combination of Erieye ER and a dedicated maritime surveillance radar, detect objects down to periscope size. AIS, electro-optical sensors, and inverse synthetic aperture radar support identification, not only detection. Over land, the aircraft provides wide-area ground moving target indication and weather-independent radar imagery. For land forces, that means a GlobalEye orbit can contribute to tracking vehicle movement, logistics routes, missile-launcher displacement, and armored concentrations before they appear inside the sensor range of ground units.

NATO needs these aircraft because fixed ground radars and national sensors do not provide the same geometry, persistence, or command function. A radar placed at altitude looks over terrain and the Earth’s curvature, which is essential against low-level aircraft and missiles. NATO has already used AWACS extensively after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and intensified flights after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine; the Alliance says AWACS aircraft have monitored Russian warplanes, missiles, naval vessels, large drones, and tanks along the eastern flank. GlobalEye would not replace fighters, surface-to-air missile batteries, frigates, or space-based sensors, but it would shorten the time between detection, classification, tasking, and engagement.

The selection also reflects a change in NATO’s acquisition path. In November 2023, NSPA had moved toward six Boeing E-7A Wedgetail aircraft for an initial Alliance Future Surveillance and Control capability, but NATO dropped that plan in 2025 after uncertainty around the U.S. Air Force E-7 procurement. Saab’s July 2026 announcement therefore does more than identify a new aircraft; it shifts the future NATO AEW&C fleet toward a European prime contractor and a Canadian-built business jet airframe. Canada separately selected Saab as preferred supplier for its own AEW&C requirement in May 2026, also based on the Bombardier Global 6500, which could create a larger allied user base for training, sustainment, spares, software upgrades, and mission-system development.

For NATO commanders, the practical capability gain would be fourfold: more modern radar performance against smaller and lower-signature targets; simultaneous air, sea, and land surveillance from one aircraft; a deployable airborne command node that can pass data to aircraft, ships, land headquarters, and air-defense units; and a fleet architecture better aligned with NATO’s Alliance Federated Surveillance and Control concept. That concept, advanced in February 2026, is intended to connect NATO-owned aircraft, national sensors, ground systems, maritime assets, space-based surveillance, and unmanned technologies into a distributed surveillance-and-control network. The remaining issues will be contractual cost, delivery schedule, air-to-air refueling configuration, NATO data-link integration, crew generation, and survivability in a contested air-defense environment. If those issues are resolved, GlobalEye would give NATO a more flexible replacement for the E-3A and a better sensor-to-shooter framework for deterrence operations on the Alliance’s exposed flanks.

Explore More Defense News

• Land Defense News
• Naval Defense News
• Defense Aerospace News

Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst.

Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.