Numbers Make Difference: Sweden Gives Ukraine Two Saab 340 AEW&Cs, Not One

Sweden's announcement on May 29, 2024, that it will donate the largest to date military aid package worth EUR 1.16 billion to Ukraine and mentioned Saab 340 AEW&C among the provisions created a certain confusion. The Swedish authorities were in discord about how many of these important aircraft would be allocated by the Swedish government. At first, the Ministry of Defense of Sweden talked one unit, while the local media got the impression that it was actually about two planes.

Now the clear answer is here, and it was delivered by Tom Samuelsson, Press Secretary of the Prime Minister of Sweden. He stated that Sweden is handing two Saab 340 AEW&C aircraft, it's just that one of them was earlier displayed by Swedish PM Ulf Kristersson to the Ukrainian Ambassador in the country.

That issue clarified, it becomes necessary to explain why it's so important that Ukraine will receive exactly two Saab 340 AEW&Cs from Sweden, and not just one. In this case, the broader picture is much more complicated than the simple idea that "the more, the better."

Let's start with the fact that each airborne early warning and control (AEW&C / a.k.a. AWACS in the U.S.) system, due to its characteristics, can cover surrounding airspace only within a certain radius during patrolling. For the Saab 340 AEW&C system specifically, which is equipped with the PS-890 EriEye radar, the field of view is 150 degrees on both sides, and the effective coverage area is 500,000 square kilometers on the horizontal plane.

At the same time, the instrumented range of the PS-890 EriEye radar is determined to be within 450 km if the aircraft is at an altitude of 6 kilometers. Next, the target detection range of the "fighter" type is declared at 330 kilometers. Accordingly, the more AEW&C aircraft are available, the larger the area of Ukraine's territory can be covered, which is quite a difficult task, considering Ukraine is the largest country in Europe.

The next important point is that each airborne radar system can patrol the airspace for a certain duration which is limited by the design features of the airborne platform, i.e. the aircraft itself, and the amount of time the AEW&C crew can perform their duties effectively. Regarding the Saab 340 AEW&C, There's data that here the duration of a continuous patrol can be up to 5 hours, with 6 people on board.

Even if practically the figure is higher, we should still not rule out the option where the airborne radars take turns patrolling the area, to give the aircrew an opportunity to rest and prepare the AEW&C system for the next departure.

On a final note, the transfer of two Saab 340 AEW&C radars from Sweden means that a training course for an appropriate number of aircrew and maintenance technicians is in order, as well as the deployment of all the associated infrastructure for upkeep.