Overview
- NATO announced on July 7 that a group of allies has provisionally chosen up to ten Saab GlobalEye aircraft to succeed the aging Boeing E-3A Sentry fleet and will begin formal negotiations with the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA).
- Saab has not received a contract yet and says negotiations will now proceed; the company estimates it could begin deliveries as soon as 2030 if a deal is signed.
- Eleven allies — Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania and Sweden — are named as participants in the joint procurement effort.
- The GlobalEye plan is part of a wider package of pooled buys announced at the summit that includes up to five Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton unmanned maritime surveillance aircraft and a multinational Airbus A400M transport fleet initiative.
- The choice follows the collapse of the earlier Boeing E-7 Wedgetail pathway and reflects industrial and political trade-offs inside the alliance; Saab has suggested a program cost near $4.5 billion with unit prices around $400–$450 million and early GlobalEye buys may initially lack in-flight refuelling capability.