NATO’s planned Boeing E-7 Wedgetail purchase was abandoned in November 2025 after the United States withdrew from the programme. The latest official update, from NATO in July 2026, says 11 Allies have announced a joint procurement of up to 10 Saab GlobalEye aircraft to succeed part of the Alliance’s aging E-3A AWACS fleet. That is not a purchase by every NATO member, and NATO has not published a final quantity, price, contract-signing date or delivery schedule.
Why the planned E-7 purchase was dropped
The E-7 Wedgetail had been considered to replace NATO’s E-3A airborne surveillance aircraft. On 13 November 2025, the Netherlands Ministry of Defence announced that the Netherlands and several partner countries would not acquire the planned six E-7s after the United States withdrew from the programme in July. The ministry said, as reported by Agence Europe on 14 November, “The strategic and financial foundations of the previous programme have disappeared.”
The Dutch announcement said the remaining countries would examine alternative solutions and seek new partners. Agence Europe also reported State Secretary for Defence Gijs Tuinman’s statement that “The American withdrawal also demonstrates the importance of investing as much as possible in European industry.” These quotations were reported from the Dutch ministry’s announcement; they were not statements made directly to Agence Europe.
What NATO announced instead
NATO’s account of the 2026 Summit Defence Industry Forum in Ankara says Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania and Sweden announced a joint procurement of up to 10 Saab GlobalEye aircraft. The announcement is by those 11 Allies, not by all NATO members. “Up to 10” is a ceiling in the announcement, not a confirmed final order quantity.
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NATO describes GlobalEye as a multi-domain surveillance system intended to cover air, land and sea. It says the system is designed to detect and track complex threats, including drone swarms and ballistic and cruise missiles. That describes the announced mission; it is not a published head-to-head assessment showing how GlobalEye compares with the E-7 on performance, cost or delivery.
How GlobalEye fits alongside the existing fleet
| Capability | What NATO says it does | Status in the public update |
|---|---|---|
| E-3A AWACS | NATO’s existing airborne fleet supports air surveillance, command and control, battlespace management and communications. NATO also describes its role in tracking potentially hostile low-altitude aircraft, maritime activity and sharing information with users on land, at sea and in the air. | NATO lists 14 aircraft. A final-life-extension effort is intended to keep them operational through 2035; NATO predicts retirement soon after that. |
| Saab GlobalEye | The aircraft announced as a successor for part of the E-3A fleet, with multi-domain surveillance across air, land and sea. | Eleven Allies announced a joint procurement of up to 10 aircraft. NATO’s July 2026 update does not state a final quantity, signed contract, cost or delivery milestones. |
| Alliance Federated Surveillance and Control (AFSC) | A wider “System of Systems” intended to connect NATO-owned, multinational and national assets across air, ground, maritime and space domains. | NATO says AFSC entered a build-up phase in February 2026. The initiative includes integration of GlobalEye, Alliance Ground Surveillance drones and the Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space initiative. |
The distinction matters: GlobalEye is an aircraft procurement, while AFSC is the broader network intended to connect multiple capabilities. The announced aircraft are meant to replace part of the E-3A fleet, not every NATO surveillance asset or function.
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What the timeline does—and does not—tell us
- July 2025: The United States withdrew from the planned E-7 programme, according to the Netherlands Ministry of Defence announcement reported by Agence Europe.
- 13 November 2025: The Netherlands announced that it and several partner countries would not buy the planned six E-7s and would seek alternatives and new partners.
- February 2026: NATO says AFSC entered its build-up phase.
- July 2026: NATO reported that 11 Allies had announced the joint procurement of up to 10 GlobalEye aircraft.
The Netherlands’ 2025 announcement described an aim to bring alternative aircraft into service by 2035. NATO says the E-3A extension is intended to keep the current aircraft operational through 2035, with retirement expected soon after. Those broad horizons do not establish a detailed delivery sequence or guarantee that there will be no capability gap during transition.
What remains unconfirmed
NATO’s public update identifies the participating Allies and the procurement’s maximum announced quantity, but it does not state whether a final contract has been signed, how many aircraft will ultimately be purchased, the total cost, delivery dates or an initial operational capability date. The sources also do not provide a like-for-like technical comparison of the E-7 and GlobalEye or enough official data to rank them on radar coverage, command-and-control capacity, interoperability, survivability or lifecycle cost.
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Defense News reported in April 2026 on GlobalEye’s platform and relayed performance and price estimates, but that report predates NATO’s July announcement and is secondary reporting. Its figures should not be treated as official NATO procurement terms or as a complete comparison with the E-7.
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The E-7 plan is no longer the path NATO’s public updates describe: the planned six-aircraft purchase was abandoned after the U.S. withdrawal, and 11 Allies subsequently announced a GlobalEye procurement of up to 10 aircraft. The aircraft are part of a larger surveillance-network effort, while NATO’s E-3A fleet is slated to remain in service through an intended life extension to 2035. Publicly stated information does not yet establish the final order, price or transition schedule.
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