30 September 2020

UAE receives second GlobalEye AEW&C aircraft

by Gareth Jennings

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has received its second Saab GlobalEye airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, the manufacturer announced on 30 September.

Saab delivered the second of three GlobalEye Swing Role Surveillance System aircraft to the UAE on 30 September (Saab)

The delivery of the second of the three Bombardier Global 6000 business jet-based platforms that were contracted to the UAE Air Force and Defence (AF&D) under the Swing Role Surveillance System award in late 2015 came some five months after the first aircraft was handed over in late April. The third and final contracted aircraft is due to arrive in the UAE before the end of 2021, while an anticipated contract for two additional platforms is still waiting to be signed.

Given the somewhat classified nature of the AEW&C role and the secretive nature of the launch customer, Saab has not disclosed if any UAE-specific equipment has been installed on these aircraft beyond the already disclosed baseline mission fit.

The GlobalEye platform is built around 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.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has received its second Saab GlobalEye airborne early warning and con...

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