American L3Harris is seeking partners in Europe for an AWACS aircraft to offer it for the corresponding NATO role. And this could be an unexpected competitor for the Swedish Saab GlobalEye, which until now was predicted an automatic victory.
As company representatives told Janes, the CAEW platform based on the Bombardier Global 6500 business jet will be promoted. And this is supposed to replace 14 old E-3 Sentries after the Europeans decided to abandon the E-7 Wedgetail.
Read more: New iranian UAV Enters Ukraine War with Stealth Design Copied From Hamas Arsenal
L3Harris is currently negotiating with several possible partners in Europe, as the continent pays great attention specifically to local alternatives to American developments. At the same time, it's noted that this also concerns other specialized aircraft for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), as well as for maritime and electronic warfare capabilities.
Defense Express notes that the company already has a recent order from South Korea for an AWACS aircraft. Moreover, there, thanks to greater suitability to local requirements and localization, it was able to beat the Swedish Saab GlobalEye, which it will have to face again today.
However, the situation here is somewhat different, because European NATO countries led by the Netherlands want to give greater priority to local developments. That is, even if L3Harris manages to organize localization, there is a question of how much this will be sufficient. The fact that it already supplies EW and SIGINT aircraft to Italy may help.
Also, another important factor may be France's choice of GlobalEye and the fact that Germany is leaning toward a similar decision. So for the sake of fleet unification, it makes more sense for NATO to order the same aircraft instead of a completely new platform.
It's also worth not forgetting that L3Harris uses for its development the EL/W-2085 radar system from Israeli company IAI with an active phased array antenna. And given political reasons, this too could become a problem due to the refusal of some countries, such as Spain, from Israeli weapons.
So Saab GlobalEye, thanks to its origin and capabilities, remains the main favorite for NATOs AWACS aircraft role for now. However, the appearance of a new competitor ready to go for localization says that everything may not be as simple as initially expected.
Read more: Why Taiwan Had to Wait Three Years Just to Order NASAMS, and How Much Longer Production Will Take
