Pakistan Certified To Repair SAAB AWACS

Pakistan has been certified to build and conduct repair works of Swedish firm SAAB’s Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS), according to a report published Wednesday.

“Pakistan Air Force is the only Air force in the world to have the certification to repair Swedish AWACS,” Pakistan Defence reported quoting an unnamed source as saying.

“For the first time in history, Swedish SAAB AWACS were built from scratch by another country, even to the disbelief of SAAB itself… who had declared the project technically impossible,” he added.

SAAB’s Erieye radar system is an Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C;) system that uses active electronically scanned array (AESA) technology. The Erieye is used on a variety of aircraft platforms, such as the Saab 340 and Embraer R-99. It has recently been implemented on the Bombardier Global 6000 aircraft as the Globaleye.

The Erieye Ground Interface Segment is a major component of the software used by the Erieye system.

The radar provides 300 degree coverage and has an instrumental range of 450 km and detection range of 350 km in a dense hostile electronic warfare environment—in heavy radar clutter and at low target altitudes. In addition to this, the radar is also capable of identifying friends or foes, and has a sea surveillance mode.

The Erieye system has full interoperability with NATO air defence command and control systems.