NATO Selects Saab's GlobalEye Over the Boeing E-7 to Replace Its 14 E-3 AWACS — Up to 10 Aircraft, Around USD 4.5 Billion

The alliance will negotiate through the NATO Support and Procurement Agency for up to ten GlobalEye aircraft in a programme reported at around USD 4.5 billion; no contract has yet been signed. Saab's chief executive, Micael Johansson, put deliveries from 2030 — conditional on a quick contract, against a formal in-service target of 2031 — at USD 400–450 million per aircraft. The GlobalEye mounts Saab's Erieye ER radar on a Bombardier Global 6500 business jet, and was chosen over the Boeing E-7 Wedgetail, the 737-based aircraft NATO had picked in 2023 and dropped in November 2025 after Washington withdrew.

The funding tells the structural story. Germany's draft 2027 budget already carries about EUR 3.4 billion toward the replacement — commitment authorisations running into the mid-2030s, plus a smaller near-term tranche — set aside, in the budget's own reasoning, because the United States is no longer willing to finance airborne early warning and control in Europe. The E-3 fleet it replaces was a NATO common asset the alliance funded together; its successor leans on national budgets, Germany's among the largest.

The choice was not a clean rupture with Washington. The same forum sent Northrop Grumman a letter of intent for up to five MQ-4C Triton high-altitude surveillance drones, from Denmark, Finland, Germany and Norway — so NATO went European for airborne early warning and American for high-altitude ISR. Rutte, mindful of an audience being pressed to buy American, called the jet “a testament to partnerships,” noting its Canadian and US content.

The proprietary read. At a summit whose organising demand was that Europe buy more and buy American, the alliance's flagship surveillance programme went to a Swedish sensor suite on a Canadian jet. As Signal No. 98 noted, the flag matters less than the funding: a capability the United States once helped underwrite as a shared NATO asset is now anchored on European budgets. The Wedgetail carried US content and Washington keeps the Triton niche — but the marquee recapitalisation, and the bill, have moved to the European side of the ledger.