Netherlands to purchase its own GlobalEye aircraft, on top of NATO’s order

Saab's GlobalEye continues to rack up sales in Europe. (Saab)

STOCKHOLM — The Netherlands have agreed to purchase a Saab-made GlobalEye airborne surveillance and command-and-control aircraft, with delivery scheduled for 2031, Sweden announced today.

The plane, which would be delivered in 2031, is in addition to The Hague’s role in a NATO purchase of up to 10 GlobalEye aircraft, announced earlier this year. In effect, this plane would guarantee the capability for Dutch requirements, in addition to the pooled NATO resource.

“I welcome the Netherlands’ decision to purchase GlobalEye. Through this cooperation, Dutch crews will be able to train on Swedish systems as early as 2028, while we build the conditions for joint use, training and operational cooperation,” Defense Minister Pål Jonson said in a statement to Breaking Defense on Thursday morning.

“This will give our air forces better situational awareness, higher interoperability and a greater ability to jointly lead and conduct air operations within NATO,” Jonson stated.

Jonson has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with his counterpart, Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius. However, there are still steps to come, as Saab said in a statement that it has not yet received an order from the Netherlands and “stands prepared and awaits the next steps of the procurement process.”

It has been a successful year for Saab’s GlobalEye offering.

In May, Canada announced plans to acquire GlobalEye and said the deal would include a production line in the country for both domestic and export markets, however no contracts are signed with Canada and NATO on Global Eye as negotiations continues.

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Then in July, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said a group of allies had jointly decided to acquire GlobalEye aircraft to replace the Alliance’s aging E-3 Sentry surveillance planes. The selection of a European solution came five months after a group of allies walked away from a planned buy of Boeing E-7A Wedgetail aircraft due to the loss of “strategic and financial foundations.”

Weeks later, Saab also received an order for two GlobalEye aircraft from an undisclosed country in the Middle East. “A new GlobalEye customer,” the company said. That order is valued at 10.1 billion kronor (about $1 billion), with deliveries scheduled for 2030.

Today’s announcement may be the last major acquisition announcement from Jonson. This weekend marks parliamentary elections in Sweden, with polls showing a very slim lead for the center-left opposition over the ruling right-wing block.

萨博GlobalEye在欧洲的销量持续攀升。（萨博）

斯德哥尔摩——瑞典今天宣布，荷兰已同意购买萨博公司制造的GlobalEye空中监视和指挥控制飞机，预计将于2031年交付。

这架将于2031年交付的飞机，是海牙参与北约今年早些时候宣布的采购至多10架“全球之眼”无人机计划之外的又一举措。实际上，这架飞机将确保荷兰在北约联合资源之外，也能满足其作战能力需求。

“我欢迎荷兰决定购买GlobalEye系统。通过这项合作，荷兰机组人员最早可在2028年使用瑞典系统进行训练，同时我们也正在为联合使用、训练和作战合作创造条件，”国防部长帕尔·约翰逊周四上午在接受Breaking Defense采访时表示。

约翰逊表示：“这将使我们的空军拥有更好的态势感知能力、更高的互操作性以及在北约内部联合领导和开展空中行动的更大能力。”

约翰逊已与荷兰贸易代表迪兰·耶希尔戈兹-泽格里乌斯签署了意向书。然而，后续步骤仍待完成，萨博在一份声明中表示，公司尚未收到来自荷兰的订单，“已做好准备，等待采购流程的下一步”。

对于 Saab 的 GlobalEye 产品来说，今年是成功的一年。

今年 5 月，加拿大宣布计划收购 GlobalEye，并表示该交易将包括在加拿大境内建立一条生产线，以供应国内和出口市场。然而，由于谈判仍在进行中，加拿大和北约尚未就 GlobalEye 签署任何合同。

欧洲的军事优势取决于其对实际情况的主权掌控。

随着北约和欧洲各国政府加快对天基情报的投资，决策优势将取决于主权能力和商业能力能够多快地融合到一个可信的作战图景中。

随后在7月，北约秘书长马克·吕特表示，部分盟国已共同决定采购“全球之眼”（GlobalEye）飞机，以取代联盟老旧的E-3“哨兵”（Sentry）预警机。此前五个月，由于“战略和财政基础”的缺失，部分盟国放弃了购买波音E-7A“楔尾”（Wedgetail）预警机的计划。而此次选择欧洲方案，正是在此之后做出的决定。

几周后，萨博公司又收到来自中东某国（未公开国名）的两架GlobalEye飞机订单。“又多了一位GlobalEye客户，”该公司表示。该订单价值101亿瑞典克朗（约合10亿美元），预计将于2030年交付。

今天的公告可能是约翰逊集团最后一次重大收购公告。本周末瑞典将举行议会选举，民调显示中左翼反对党对执政的右翼联盟仅以微弱优势领先。