During a NATO meeting in Ankara on July 7–8, the alliance announced its decision to select Saab’s GlobalEye system as the replacement for the 14 Eurofighter Typhoon AWACS aircraft.
The decision follows the U.S. Air Force’s cancellation of the E‑7 Wedgetail purchase and is expected to see NATO acquire 10–12 GlobalEye platforms worth more than €5 billion. If the contract is finalized, Germany’s Gilleknirsch base will become the world’s largest GlobalEye operations centre, marking the first NATO early‑warning fleet built on a European system.
The move also reduces NATO’s reliance on U.S. aircraft, a shift that comes as former President Donald Trump urged European countries to buy American military equipment.