Saab has secured an order for an unspecified number of Erieye airborne early warning and control systems to an undisclosed customer.
The systems, which will be hosted aboard a Saab 2000 twin-turboprop aircraft, are valued at $160 million and will be delivered between 2020 and 2023.
“The industry’s nature is such that due to circumstances concerning the product and customer, further information about the customer will not be announced,” Saab said.
While Saab declined to provide further details, the nature of the system, the contract value, and the delivery timelines all indicate that the order is likely to be for between two and three systems.
Given that Saab’s primary AEW&C offering is the Bombardier 6000/6500-based GlobalEye, utilizing the Erieye Extended-Range (ER) radar, it is likely that the Saab 2000-based platforms are for a follow-on customer looking to augment their existing fleet, rather than a new customer looking to acquire the latest solution. The only two customers already known to operate the Saab 2000 AEW&C are Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
The Saab 2000 AEW&C utilizes the Saab (formerly Ericsson) PS-890 Erieye radar system, which is fitted to the aircraft as a dorsal ‘plank’ antenna. It features an electronic warfare suite that includes electronic support, threat-warning and countermeasures dispensing subsystems, an identification friend-or-foe subsystem, command-and-control (C2) capabilities, and a ground-based mission trainer. The aircraft has a 2,868 km range, a cruise speed of 321 kt, and a maximum take-off weight of 22,800 kg.
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