In interviews to Defence 24, Deputy Basic Commander Maj. Gen. Ireneusz Nowak pointed to the necessity for a brand new AEW&C platform, given the restricted remaining lifespan of the Saab 340s.
The Polish Air Drive (PolAF) want to substitute its Saab 340 Airborne Early Warning and Management (AEW&C) plane, purchased second-hand a couple of years in the past, given the platform’s age and the restricted remaining lifespan. These points had been coated in two in depth interviews with the PolAF brass and an L3Harris govt by Defence 24 in December 2025 and this month, respectively.
With the E-7A Wedgtail thought of over-budget, enterprise jet-based AEW&C platforms are favorable choices, given their present taste with quite a lot of particular mission roles like ISR and Indicators Intelligence (SIGINT). Saab’s GlobalEye and L3Harris’ Conformal Array Airborne Early Warning (CAEW) plane, each primarily based on the Bombardier International 6500 enterprise jet, match the invoice.
For the time being, the GlobalEye and the CAEW had been talked about as an unbiased statement by Defence 24, and haven’t figured in any formal acquisition course of launched by the Ministry of Nationwide Protection. Nonetheless, a contest for the choice of the brand new AEW&C platform is perhaps on the horizon.
Defence 24 interviews with PolAF leaders and L3Harris
Defence 24 printed on Dec. 19 and Dec. 22, 2025 a wide-ranging interview with Polish Air Drive Deputy Basic Commander Maj. Gen. Ireneusz Nowak, Head of the Army Gear Col. Sebastian Paluch and Head of the Crew for the Implementation of the F-35, Col. Paweł Muzyczuk.
In a ceremony right now in Sweden, we unveiled the primary 340 AEW system to the Polish buyer. The answer, offered solely two months after the order, will present Poland’s Armed Forces with a nationwide asset to strengthen territorial integrity and nationwide safety. #AEWC pic.twitter.com/TRo94IyjoV
— Saab (@Saab) September 29, 2023
The officers mentioned that the 2 Saab 340s, acquired from the United Arab Emirates and inducted within the Polish Air Drive in 2024, have an ageing radar that may final just for the following 4 years. It have to be famous they didn’t point out any doable competitor, or a proper acquisition launched by the Ministry of Nationwide Protection, besides stressing upon how the Saab 340 merely meets a direct want.
Nonetheless, on Jan. 12, 2026, an interview emerged with L3Harris’ advertising and communications senior supervisor Re-Essa Buckels, titled “Eye within the sky. The race to exchange Poland’s airborne radars.” Defence 24 independently mentions the Saab GlobalEye and the L3Harris CAEW are pure contenders for cost-effective AEW platforms that leverage small, present service plane and confirmed radars.
Polish 🇵🇱 Air Drive F-16 Falcon and MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter plane escort @usairforce 🇺🇸 B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers throughout will fly over Poland on August 28, 2020. #StrongerTogether
📸 by Piotr Łysakowski pic.twitter.com/WRLZOduJUN
— Baltic Safety (@balt_security) August 28, 2020
The PolAF leaders additionally spoke about their future plans, together with strategic airlift, refueling tanker and multirole fighter fleet, together with the F-35A Husarz, the F-16, the FA-50PL and the curiosity within the KF-21 Boramae. In addition they mirrored on the army and strategic state of affairs amid the persevering with battle in Ukraine, evolving army developments, doctrines, standoff surface-strike fires and UAV threats from Russia and uneven drone warfare.
Air Policing detachments are on Fast Response Alert 24/7/365
🇬🇧 in 🇵🇱🇵🇹 in 🇪🇪🇵🇱🇷🇴in 🇱🇹🇮🇹in 🇷🇴
Safeguarding the integrity of NATO airspace is a everlasting peacetime process contributing to NATO’s collective defence pic.twitter.com/IREo1jpog2
— NATO Air Command (@NATO_AIRCOM) July 2, 2025
Saab 340 and Poland’s AEW functionality
Poland had signed a € 52 million contract for 2 used ex-United Arab Emirates (UAE) Saab 340 AEW&C plane in July 2023, and each the plane had been delivered by June 2024. They’ve been recognized to function from the forty third Naval Air Base in Gdynia and the forty fourth Naval Aviation Base in Siemirowice.
Reviews mentioned that, given the age of the plane, their operational life is predicted to be about ten years, and that the techniques had been thought of as mere stopgap preparations.
Primarily based on a variant of the Saab 340 plane twin-engine turboprop plane and designated S 100B Argus by the Swedish Air Drive (Flygvapnet), the system carries a set non-movable PS-890 Lively Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar. It might observe targets as much as a variety of 300-400 km however the side-facing arrays don’t permit for entrance and rear scanning.
This week the second of 🇸🇪 @Saab 340 AEW early warning plane procured for the Polish Military landed on the base in Gdynia! ✈️
After a sequence of crew coaching periods, the planes will soar over the 🇵🇱 sky, guarding the safety of our area and all the jap #NATO flank! pic.twitter.com/PwnosNoSk4
— Polska Ambassaden i Sverige (@PLinSweden) June 12, 2024
Nowak instructed Defence 24 in regards to the Saab 340: “The army is happy with this resolution as a result of it’s higher to have one thing than nothing. This resolution is a bridge and has its limitations. The largest downside is its network-centricity – the platform’s lack of integration with Hyperlink 16. The plane itself, as a platform, is excellent, confirmed, and dependable. [But] the radar’s lifespan […] shall be exhausted by 2030. So we’d like to consider the last word resolution now.”
Poland had regarded on the E-7A Wedgetail, Nowak added, however regardless of the platform’s spectacular functionality, the service discovered it to bee “too costly.” The E-7’s future inside the NATO alliance and the U.S. Air Drive can be bleak, though the U.S. Congress has requested the service to both order a adequate variety of E-7s or put together an exhaustive plan to maintain the older E-3 Sentries flying, to be able to preserve a reputable airborne radar sensing functionality.
Poland can be buying 4 aerostat-based platforms for a similar function, in a Might 2024 $1 billion take care of the U.S. Protection Information quoted a press launch by the MND saying that Poland could be the second such nation to make use of the system.
After a serious 9+ hour mission searching Russian drones and coordinating air defenses in a single day, Poland’s SAAB 340 airborne early warning plane is heading for residence. pic.twitter.com/L1McAqVWz1
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) September 10, 2025
L3Harris pitches its CAEW
Buckels reiterated L3Harris’s confirmed engineering expertise with modifying present enterprise jets just like the Bombardier International 6500 and the Gulfstream G550. These embrace lately profitable South Korea’s new AEW program with its CAEW, and the assorted ISR plane below the U.S. Military’s Excessive Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES) program. All are primarily based on the International 6500, just like the Saab GlobalEye AEW&C lately ordered by France.
Platforms primarily based on the G550 service plane modified by L3Harris embrace the EA-37B Compass Name digital warfare plane for the U.S. and Italian Air Drive/Aeronautica Militare, the latter’s Joint Airborne Multi-Mission Multi-Sensor System (JAMMS), and the Royal Australian Air Drive’s MC-55A Peregrine SIGINT and EW system.
RELEASE: Saab receives order for GlobalEye, together with floor gear, coaching and help, from France.
— Saab (@Saab) December 31, 2025
Buckels highlighted the difficult airframe modification, techniques integration, certification and flight trial work for missionizing enterprise jets, whereas stressing upon some great benefits of a Conformal Array antenna for particular mission ISR, AEW and SIGINT/EW/Stand-Off Jamming (SOJ) roles.
📢 Landmark contract: We’ve been chosen to ship modified @Bombardier International 6500 plane with airborne early warning and management techniques to the Republic of Korea Air Drive. These superior plane promise mission readiness!✈️ Learn extra: pic.twitter.com/WXRRYsRdyi
— L3Harris (@L3HarrisTech) October 19, 2025
“The conformal antenna strategy doesn’t affect the plane’s efficiency when it comes to maneuverability, pace, and altitude. The nostril and tail array, coupled with the aspect cheeks present full 360-degree radar protection,” she instructed Defence 24.
L3Harris showcased a mannequin of the International 6500 “Phoenix” AEW&C on the #TADTE2025. The plane, primarily based on the Bombardier International 6500 enterprise jet, is provided with the latest-generation EL/W-2085 CAEW (L&S) dual-band AESA radar from Israeli firm ELTA Methods, utilizing GaN… pic.twitter.com/0rnRYuRI8c
— 笑脸男人 (@lfx160219) September 20, 2025
What the Poles need
Itemizing the anticipated capabilities of any new future AEW&C platform, Nowak mentioned it have to be able to a highest doable flight altitude, a “most” surveillance/monitoring vary, Floor Shifting Goal Indication (GMTI) capabilities and “ought to have flight controllers and weapon allocators.” It’s unclear whether or not this refers to a capability to offer mid-course steering to missiles launched by pleasant plane.
Przestrzeń powietrzna pod specjalnym nadzorem. Polskie Saab 340 AEW rozpoczynają dyżury operacyjne@MON_GOV_PL @SztabGenWP @DGeneralneRSZ @DowOperSZ pic.twitter.com/aIYLMfBd59
— polska_zbrojna (@Polska_Zbrojna) November 22, 2024
The radar should additionally be capable of detect “the total spectrum of threats – from drones to ballistic missiles.”
Concerning the aerostats, Nowak mentioned the system has its limitations, starting with their “lack of expertise” in working them, together with their vulnerability to the weather like “precipitation, icing and gusts of wind.” They’re however “very vital, not solely within the pursuits of Poland but in addition of accomplice nations.”
