NATO plans to replace AWACS with Saab GlobalEye jets, sources say
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Banners displaying the NATO logo are placed at the entrance of new NATO headquarters during the move to the new building, in Brussels, Belgium April 19, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman
By Sabine Siebold and Tim Hepher
BERLIN/PARIS, July 2 (Reuters) - NATO plans to replace its ageing fleet of AWACS aircraft with GlobalEye surveillance planes from Sweden's Saab, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, a move that could test uneasy relations with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Trump has been pushing allies to purchase American weapons and has repeatedly threatened to quit NATO, accusing European nations of free-riding by leaving the U.S. to pay for the continent's security.
The sources said NATO will announce the GlobalEye plans during a meeting of its members in the Turkish capital Ankara on July 7 and 8.
NATO did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Saab declined comment.
Acting like flying radar towers with their distinctive nine-metre-wide radomes, NATO's 14 Airborne Warning and Control System jets have been its eyes in the sky since 1982.
Based at Geilenkirchen airbase in Germany, the AWACS fleet has been widely used for NATO surveillance missions along the alliance's eastern flank since Russia launched its war in Ukraine.
Under the replacement plan, the base may eventually become home to the world's biggest fleet of GlobalEye surveillance jets, the sources said. First flown in 2018, the system is based on the Global 6500 business jet built by Canada's Bombardier.
GlobalEye competes with Boeing's E-7 Wedgetail, an early warning and command and control aircraft based on the 737 jetliner and designed to oversee and direct battle.
In 2025, NATO abandoned initial plans to purchase six Boeing E-7 Wedgetail planes after its biggest customer, the Pentagon, scrapped plans to buy 26 of them and rely more on satellites.
Under pressure from U.S. lawmakers, however, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Congressional panel in May that the Pentagon is pushing to add the plane back into the budget.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold and Tim Hepher; Additional reporting by Simon Johnson; Editing by Barbara Lewis and Joe Bavier)
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