Bombardier delivers fifth Global business jet to Saab for GlobalEye conversion

Bombardier has delivered its fifth Global 6000 business jet to Saab for conversion to the GlobalEye airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) configuration.

The fifth of five Global 6000 business jets to be converted to the GlobalEye configuration for the UAE arrives at Saab's Linkoping facility in Sweden. (Bombardier)

The business jet manufacturer announced on 26 August that the aircraft had been delivered to Saab's Linkoping facility in Sweden from its Toronto manufacturing plant in Canada, having undergone extensive interior work at Flying Colours Corporation in Peterborough, Ontario.

Though not named in the statement, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will be the end-customer for this aircraft once the GlobalEye conversion is complete. Having signed for an initial three platforms in 2015, the UAE added two more to its Swing Role Surveillance System (SRSS) requirement in late December 2020. With the first three GlobalEyes now with the UAE Air Force and Defence (AF&D), all five aircraft are due for delivery by the end of 2025.

Using the Global 6000 airframe as the host platform, the GlobalEye utilises the Saab Erieye Extended Range (ER) S-band (2–4 GHz) radar that is housed in the same external dorsal ‘plank' as the company's original Erieye system. Equipped with gallium nitride (GaN) and other technologies, the Erieye ER is an active electronically scanned array (AESA) system that doubles the radar's power efficiency compared with previous Erieye iterations. It has a range in excess of 650 km that, as with all AESA radars, can be dramatically extended by focusing the radar's energy in a particular direction. Saab has said the Erieye ER is resistant to jamming and features all-weather functionality in all domains (air, sea, and land surveillance), as well as an “extremely high” tracking update rate against targets of interest.