Ottawa negotiating purchase of Saab GlobalEye surveillance planes: Carney

OTTAWA – The federal government is entering into contract negotiations with Saab to buy a fleet of surveillance aircraft for the Royal Canadian Air Force, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday.

Ottawa has previously stated it’s in the market for six advanced early warning radar aircraft.

Saab produces the surveillance planes in a joint partnership with Bombardier, based on Bombardier’s Global 6500 business jet.

“The GlobalEye’s airborne surveillance capability can track objects and signals up to 650 kilometres away, and they’ll share in real time that information with the Canadian Forces and our allies,” Carney said during a speech at the Cansec defence expo in Ottawa.

Carney noted he is the first prime minister to attend the annual Cansec arms show, a nod to his push to build up the military and the domestic defence sector.

Philippe Lagassé, a defence procurement expert and professor at Carleton University, said this is Carney’s first step in demonstrating what diversification beyond the American defence industry looks like.

“The government’s propensity or desire to pivot away from American military capability and built-in partnerships with Europe made the GlobalEye the easy choice for them,” Lagassé told The Canadian Press.

The prime minister also pointed out that the Global 6500 includes 20 per cent U.S. content.

Secretary of State for Defence Procurement Stephen Fuhr told reporters at a news conference at Cansec on Wednesday that Bombardier currently makes its jets in the Toronto area. Saab then adds the military components in Sweden.

But now, Saab will add those surveillance component parts within Canada, with an eye to bolstering its export capacity.

“One of the benefits of what we’re doing here is, not only is this going to be a capability for Canada but … we’d like to export from Canada,” he said.

Saab’s CEO Micael Johansson told The Canadian Press on the floor of the trade show that talks are ongoing to establish how quickly Canadian industry could build the planes.

“We will establish a Canadian hub to build planes in Canada. That’s a very important part of this,” he said.

“We need the capacity, from a Saab perspective, and Canada has excellent industries to support this. Of course we will build planes here — that will be important for us to have that capacity on both sides of the Atlantic.”

National Defence also considered two American products: Boeing’s Wedgetail E7A, an advanced version of its radar aircraft, and L3Harris’ AERIS X platform.

“It’s not too much of a surprise,” Lagassé said of the announcement on the Saab jets, adding that the Liberals campaigned in the last election on acquiring a domestic radar aircraft.

“That led to really only two options, Saab’s GlobalEye or working with L3Harris potentially to integrate an (airborne early warning) ability on the Bombardier jet,” he added.

In statements to media, Boeing voiced confidence in its E7 product and said it respects the Carney government’s decision, while L3Harris said it will “continue to engage with the government of Canada on this program.” 

The government has yet to make a decision on its planned purchase of fighter jets. The Gripen fighter jet, built by the Swedish aerospace company Saab, is the obvious rival to the American-built F-35 fighter jet in that competition.

Ottawa’s full order of 88 F-35s has been mired in a political review that has lasted for more than a year as U.S. President Donald Trump has pursued his ongoing trade war with Canada. 

This decision on the radar planes ultimately may have little bearing on the fighter jets.

“I don’t think we can read anything into it either way, to be honest, just based on this announcement,” Lagassé said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 27, 2026.