Slow pace of transfers to Ukraine has left Sweden with two of its Saab 340 AEW&C (ASC890) aircraft available for NATO duty.
January 13, 2025
A series of suspected Russian sabotage incidents targeting undersea infrastructure in the Baltic has heightened concerns about Russian (and Chinese) activities in the region. Vital undersea cables and pipelines crisscross the seabed, linking Baltic, Nordic and central European countries. They carry internet and communications traffic, electricity, oil and gas, providing energy security, and promoting trade.
Sweden is now joining a new NATO defensive maritime mission in the area. Sweden’s Navy will deploy up to three warships to bolster NATO’s naval presence in the Baltic Sea. The Swedish Coast Guard will contribute four further ships to help to monitor the Baltic, and will place a further seven ships on standby. Sweden will also allocate a Swedish Air Force Saab 340 AEW&C aircraft to the mission.
The Swedish government said that this will be the first time that Sweden has contributed armed forces to the alliance’s defence and deterrent posture as a NATO member.
Sweden has two GlobalEyes under contract (ordered in June 2022), and is to acquire an additional aircraft and accelerate the type’s entry into service. The first two are now expected to be delivered to the air force rather sooner than the original planned 2027 delivery date. The GlobalEye aircraft will be based at Uppsala, also known as Ärna Air Base.
The Swedish government made its plans public within a wider announcement of military aid to Ukraine that was published on 29 May 2024. As part of that announcement, the Swedish government said that its commitment to donate one of the Swedish Air Force’s two Saab ASC890 AEW&C airframes would be backfilled by an increased and accelerated order for the GlobalEye. This seemed to mark a scaling back of the original commitment to transfer two ASC890s to Ukraine. “The donation [of a Saab ASC 890 AEW&C aircraft] will entail a temporary decrease of Sweden’s defence capability, which will be addressed by procuring additional S 106 GlobalEye aircraft and advancing previous orders for two new GlobalEye aircraft,” the statement went on.
Ukrainian sources suggest that the delay in the delivery of the ASC 890 Airborne Early Warning (AEW) aircraft, was a result of the need to wait for US approval, since the aircraft contains a significant amount of US-made equipment. This may also explain the apparent change in the number of aircraft to be transferred, since President Biden reportedly suggested that one aircraft would be sufficient rather than two.
