U.S. Army Selects Swedish Saab Giraffe 1X Radar in $46M Deal to Strengthen Allied Air Defense.

The U.S. Army has awarded Saab a $46 million contract for its Giraffe 1X short-range 3D radars, with deliveries beginning in 2026. The compact system will strengthen air defense and counter-UAS capabilities for U.S. security cooperation partners across NATO and allied networks.

The Swedish company Saab announced on 28 October 2025, that the U.S. Army awarded a contract worth approximately 46 million dollars for Giraffe 1X short-range 3D radars to support security cooperation partners, with deliveries starting in 2026 and the order booked in the third quarter. Saab positions the lightweight system to reinforce air defense and counter-UAS capacity across allied formations that need mobile coverage fast.
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Saab Giraffe 1X is a lightweight X-band AESA 3D radar with 360°/1-sec refresh, detecting small drones to ~4 km and air targets 75+ km; vehicle-mountable for air surveillance, C-UAS and C-RAM (Picture source: Saab).

Giraffe 1X is an X-band, active electronically scanned array built for speed of update and portability. The complete system weighs under 150 kilograms with about 100 kilograms topside, enabling rooftop, mast, pickup or small-boat integration. Saab specifies a one-second refresh of the full 360-degree search volume, C-RAM sense-and-warn operating concurrently with normal surveillance, a stabilized search-on-the-move mode, and a dedicated Drone Tracker that reduces false alarms by discriminating birds from multirotors. The company also cites detection of very small UAVs out to roughly 4 kilometers.

On performance, Saab’s recent materials frame Giraffe 1X with a 75-kilometer search volume in the newest compact and deployment kits, while navalized Sea Giraffe 1X advertises an instrumented range near 100 kilometers. For land forces, that translates to enough reach for very short-range air defense cueing, pop-up perimeter protection, and gap-filling between larger SHORAD batteries, without the vehicle or power burden of heavier arrays.

The Army says these radars are for “security cooperation partners,” a phrase that typically points to programs under Title 10 Section 333 Building Partner Capacity or comparable funding lines managed by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. In those cases, the United States often buys foreign end products when they offer the best value or faster delivery. Contrary to a common misconception, U.S. law does not require every defense item to be built on U.S. soil; the Buy American statute creates a domestic price preference, and acquisitions covered by the Trade Agreements Act permit purchase of designated-country end products such as those from Sweden. DFARS also recognizes “qualifying countries” for defense procurement.

Giraffe 1X gives commanders a single box for air surveillance, target acquisition for VSHORAD, and C-RAM sense, with a refresh rate suited to cluttered urban and littoral environments. The radar’s open-systems approach positions it to feed contemporary short-range air defense command-and-control networks, including FAAD C2 today and the emerging counter-UAS fire-control environment the Army has tapped Anduril to lead. In practice that means cleaner tracks pushed to effectors, faster classification of Group 1–3 drones, and reliable cueing for jammers, guns, or missiles while units maneuver.

Why a non-U.S. radar? Speed and footprint. Raytheon’s Ku-band KuRFS family delivers exquisite small-UAS and C-RAM performance and is expanding beyond 15 kilometers against the smallest drones, but it is typically fielded on larger platforms and fixed or semi-fixed nodes. Leonardo DRS’s panelized MHR architecture is fielded on the U.S. Army’s M-SHORAD Stryker with four fixed faces, giving robust hemispheric coverage at the vehicle level, yet with a different integration profile than a single 150-kilogram rotating unit. European medium radars like Thales GM200 MM/C and Hensoldt TRML-4D offer greater aperture and range in heavier classes suited to battery-level sensors, not company-echelon pop-ups. Giraffe 1X competes by collapsing weight, power and crew burden while preserving the range and classification fidelity needed for VSHORAD and counter-UAS.

The deal carries industry weight on both sides of the Atlantic. Saab maintains a U.S. radar integration and sustainment footprint in Syracuse, New York, where Sea Giraffe variants designated AN/SPS-77 for the Navy have been adapted and supported, suggesting a pathway for U.S. suppliers in integration, test equipment, spares and lifecycle support on future lots. At the same time, Saab has expanded 1X production capacity in the United Kingdom to meet NATO demand, deepening a transatlantic supply chain that ties Swedish technology to Anglo-American manufacturing and support.

Sweden ordered Sea Giraffe 1X for its navy, adding to a global installed base of Giraffe family radars that includes U.S. services. That credibility inside U.S. program offices matters when partner inventories need a sensor that can be fielded rapidly, trained quickly, and fed into established command-and-control networks without waiting years for bespoke integration. The U.S. Army’s selection threads urgency with interoperability. For allies that require mobile counter-drone coverage now, Giraffe 1X’s light weight, one-second update rate and multi-mission software package offer a pragmatic fit, while U.S. procurement law comfortably accommodates designated-country radars when they deliver best value. The contract also strengthens Sweden’s post-NATO-accession role as a trusted sensor supplier and keeps meaningful workshare within the U.S. industrial base through integration and sustainment channels.

Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group.

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.