Saab’s GlobalEye airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft made its maiden flight from the company’s Linkoping production plant on 14 March. The aircraft, a modified Bombardier Global 6000 jet platform, undertook a 1 hour 46 minutes test flight collecting extensive flight-test data using the onboard instrumentation suite. This data is then used to verify the aircraft performance and associated modelling.

The maiden flight took place three weeks after Saab revealed the GlobalEye aircraft to the media for the first time on 23 February 2018. 

The launch customer of the GlobalEye, the United Arab Emirates, placed its initial order in November 2015 at the Dubai AirShow.