Voting
?What about new design for our website
- Excellent
- Very Good
- Good
Voting Number 1647
- Raytheon and Northrop Grumman Achieve Milestone in Next-Gen Interceptor Rocket Motor Tests
- SMARTSHOOTER Secures USD13 M U.S. Army Contract for Fire Control Systems
- L3Harris Boosts Space Force Defences with Mobile Satellite Comms Jammer
- MH-139A Concludes Nuclear Transport Training Exercise
- EDGE Signs MoU to Localise Maintenance Capabilities of Thales’ Advanced Optronic Systems in the UAE
- Babcock Wins Contract to Support Nuclear Submarine Defueling Operations
- Embraer to Offer Gogo Galileo HDX In-Flight Connectivity for Phenom 300
- Germany to Acquire Joint Strike Missiles for F-35s in Deal with Kongsberg
- BAE Systems to Build 10 Missile Warning Satellites Under U.S. Space Force Deal
- EDGE Signs Record-Breaking AED 9 Billion Naval Contract with Kuwait Ministry of Defence
- Hamdan bin Mohammed attends graduation ceremony of 43rd cohort of Zayed II Military College in Al Ain
- Saab Showcases Locally Developed Coast Control Radar at Make it in the Emirates 2025
- EDGE Entity EPI Receives Prestigious Accreditation from EIAC for Calibration
- Make it in the Emirates 2025 Concludes Successful Day Three under the Theme of Smart Manufacturing, Industry 4.0, and Artificial Intelligence
- Tawazun Council and Thales Sign Agreement to Establish Ground Master Air Surveillance Radar Production Facility in UAE
- Make it in the Emirates 2025: MoIAT and Thara Entrepreneurship Hub Launch Industry 4.0 Enablement Center in Ajman
- thyssenkrupp Marine Systems Secures Additional Singapore Submarine Order
- Saab Receives Order for Lightweight Torpedoes from Swedish FMV
- Moog Powers Precision Success in Black Arrow Cruise Missile Test
- NAWCWD Marks Unmanned Air Launch of Solid Fuel Rocket Ramjet
2016-09-07
Saab’s game changer: GLOBALEYE
Provides air, maritime and ground surveillance in a single solution
Saab, a Swedish aerospace and defence company, showcased the characteristics and capabilities of its all-new airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) solution, the GLOBALEYE, at the recently concluded Farnborough International Airshow.
As the threat envelope changes for security and defence forces and with governments paying more and more attention to detecting, deterring and defeating insidious as well as overt attacks on national security, the number and nature of the agencies interested in accessing rapid and reliable intelligence from assets such as an AEW&C aircraft are broadening rapidly.
“We think the military will, of course, be the primary customer for us in those nations we are in discussions with, but it is true to say that there are a much larger number of interested and influential parties now than there were only a decade ago,” said Lars Tossman, Head of Saab’s Airborne Surveillance business.
Saab strongly believes the heritage it has in aircraft manufacturing – aerostructures and complex systems integration is a major asset that has underpinned the development of GLOBALEYE.
Advanced radar technologies, the ability to highly leverage sensor data fusion and the capability to conduct surveillance in air, maritime and land domains, simultaneously, give the new aircraft an unassailable market edge, in the company’s view.
Launched at the Singapore Air Show in February, GLOBALEYE is based on the Bombardier Global 6000 business jet and combines ERIEYE with a maritime surveillance radar and five operator workstations to enable real time analysis of retrieved data.
The launch follows Saab’s recent introduction of new and upgraded fighter radar systems and five all-new complementary surface radar systems.
According to Saab, the GLOBALEYE platform offers unparalleled endurance of up to 11 hours, and in the maritime role can detect objects down to the size of a submarine periscope at tactically significant ranges. The system operates independently and its flexible nature, allows for changes in mission profile at short notice. This combination of capabilities in a single platform makes the system unique.
The powerful new ERIEYE ER (Extended Range) radar lies at the heart of GLOBALEYE and gives the system greatly increased detection and tracking ranges. The system has the powerful capability to detect small aircraft at very low altitude, small marine targets such as small as jet-skis and moving ground targets in a seamless, integrated manner, providing operators with a highly accurate and reliable intelligence picture of an area of interest, in all weathers.
Saab is renowned for being attentive and responsive to customer requirements and agile in formulating a graceful and customer-centric solution. To truly ensure territorial integrity and security in today’s complex environments, airborne surveillance is crucial. So too is extended range coupled with the ability to detect low observable air, sea and ground objects. GLOBALEYE provides air, maritime and ground surveillance in a single solution. This solution maximises operational performance – both in terms of detection capability and mission endurance – while at the same time offering outstanding crew comfort.
With highly increased detection range and over 11 hours of operational endurance, the system is perfectly suited to fulfil the most demanding operational requirements. Particularly since it has the ability to detect low-observable air targets in heavy clutter and jamming conditions and also can detect and track maritime targets out to the elevated horizon and small jet-ski or RIB sized vessels at very long distances.
GlobalEye provides a sophisticated, high-performance system that can conduct simultaneous long-range detection, tracking and surveillance in the air, land and maritime domains, all from a single platform.
“With GlobalEye we expand and sharpen our offering, targeting customers looking to maximise their return on investment in extended AEW&C capabilities as a national asset to benefit their country,” says Micael Johansson, Head of Saab’s Business Area Electronic Defence Systems.
The truly multi-role GlobalEye automatically detects and tracks air and surface targets over a huge area. Ground surveillance of moving vehicles can be conducted through long-range, wide-area ground moving target indication (GMTI) radar modes.
With the Erieye ER radar, detection and tracking ranges have been significantly increased compared to existing airborne radars, and against the smallest targets. The GlobalEye system can track very low-observable air and sea targets, including ‘stealthy’ aircraft, cruise missiles or submarine periscopes, even in heavy clutter and jamming environments.
“GlobalEye is a game changer that delivers a unique swing-role capability for simultaneous air, maritime and ground surveillance in a single solution, with the ability to change role dynamically, while airborne during any mission,” adds Johansson.
The GlobalEye integrates a comprehensive suite of sensors, including signals intelligence, and advanced self-protection equipment with a newly-developed command, control and communication system. Cost-effective system availability is assured through the combination of a small organisational footprint and Saab’s in-service support.
Saab is able to take the prime contractor role for this ground breaking AEW&C system because of its expertise and innovation in radar technology, but also through its detailed knowledge of electronic warfare, C4I solutions and systems and platform integration.
A key element of the GlobalEye system is the Global 6000 ultra-long-range jet aircraft from Bombardier. This offers the latest avionics and combines ideal size for multi-role and extended AEW&C with outstanding performance. It is a high-speed aircraft with impressive short field performance and low operating costs. Due to the Global 6000 platform GlobalEye mission endurance can extend up to 11 hours.
Combination of capabilities
The launch customer for GlobalEye is the United Arab Emirates, which ordered the system as the Swing Role Surveillance System (SRSS), in November 2015.
The company signed a US$1.27 billion deal with the UAE at the Dubai Air show in November, with the heavily adapted Global 6000s to be capable of conducting airborne early warning and control (AEW&C), maritime and land surveillance and electronic intelligence duties.
Johansson explains that the launch order from the UAE has prompted a rush of interest in the company’s new offering. “The aircraft is already in Linköping, and we are integrating our systems on it,” he says. “There is a lot of interest around this platform and its capabilities from many countries – some in Asia, some elsewhere.”
Modifications will include installing Saab’s Erieye ER active electronically scanned array radar in a dorsal unit above the fuselage. “It looks the same, but it is very much all new on the inside, including all the signal processing,” Johansson says. “We have fantastic range on this radar: it is almost horizon-limited in terms of how far it can see,” he adds.
The Erieye family of Airborne Early Warning & Control aircraft offer of small size, lower purchase price, dual air/sea scan capabilities, and comparatively cheap operating costs are making it one of the world’s most popular AEW systems.
The antenna reportedly provides coverage out to 450km, with a detection range of 350km even inchallenging conditions. The Erieye Ground Interface Segment (EGIS) provides a 2-way exchange of data via an associated “Link-E” datalink sub-system, and the plane’s capabilities can also reportedly be used to support border control or even rescue operations.
Johansson says the Erieye ER has 70 percent greater detection range than its previous sensor and the ability to spot challenging targets, such as cruise missiles, small unmanned air vehicles and hovering helicopters. Combining its below-fuselage mounted maritime search radar and electro-optical/infrared sensor will enable operators to locate surface threats and submarine periscopes, while its primary sensor’s synthetic aperture radar and ground moving target indication modes will be used to locate land targets.
Command and control tasks can be performed using an onboard crew of between five and seven operators and the aircraft will also feature voice and satellite communications equipment and a Link 16 data link to network with other airborne, ground and maritime assets. Saab cites a maximum mission endurance of 11h for the GlobalEye.
Highlighting Saab’s past provision of Erieye-equipped aircraft to eight nations, Johansson said: “Some of these countries might upgrade their capability, but there are many new countries looking at this capability that formerly looked at our competition, like the Boeing [737-based] MESA or the [Northrop Grumman E-2D] Advanced Hawkeye.”
Erieye radars have previously been installed on Saab 340 and Saab 2000 airframes for Pakistan, Sweden, Thailand, the UAE and an undisclosed customer and also on the Embraer ERJ-145 for Brazil, Greece and Mexico.
“We have a good customer base, with 20-plus systems, and that is what we are looking at going forward – at least – with the new GlobalEye,” Johansson says, adding that the company is aiming to secure at least half of the accessible market for AEW&C orders.
“It can do more than the competition, at a lower price,” Johnson says.
No delivery schedule has been revealed for the surveillance aircraft, with Saab attributing this to a confidentiality agreement with its customer.
Visitors Comments
Related Topics
.
No Comments