Name: Saab 2000 Saab 2000 AEW&C (Erieye)
Brand: Saab

Saab 2000 Saab 2000 AEW&C (Erieye)

Airborne early warning and control version carrying the Erieye active electronically scanned radar above the fuselage. It is the variant that has given the Saab 2000 its longest career: Pakistan and Saudi Arabia keep it in service and the manufacturer credits it with more than nine hours' endurance and a range beyond 3705 km.

Updated: August 25, 2026

Image pending

3,705 km

Range

History

The Erieye changes platform

The Erieye system had been born on the Saab 340, a small aircraft for a mission that demands persistence. The Saab 2000 — longer, faster and powered by Rolls-Royce AE 2100s — solved exactly that limitation: the same dorsal beam with an S-band AESA antenna, but with more than nine hours' endurance and a range the manufacturer puts above 2000 nautical miles, some 3705 km. Saab dates the system's entry into operation to 1996 and has evolved it by spiral development ever since.

Pakistan, the decisive customer

In June 2006 Pakistan closed the purchase of six Saab 2000s with the Erieye system; in May 2007 the contract was renegotiated down to five aircraft, four of them with radar. The first was rolled out in Sweden on 3 April 2008. Later orders in 2017 and 2020 grew the fleet to the nine aircraft the Pakistan Air Force declared in August 2024, the largest AEW&C fleet built on this airframe. Saudi Arabia operates two more.

Under fire and under dispute

The Pakistani fleet has been at the centre of two poorly documented episodes. In August 2012 an assault on Minhas air base destroyed, according to published accounts, a Saab 2000 Erieye. And during the 2025 India-Pakistan conflict the Indian Air Force claimed to have destroyed a Pakistani AEW&C aircraft after a missile strike on Bholari air base, which Pakistan denies and no independent source has verified. This entry records the controversy, not an outcome.

What the sources do not publish

Neither the manufacturer nor the material consulted details weights, ceiling or crew size for the AEW&C version on the 2000, so only airframe dimensions, powerplant and the range announced by Saab are recorded here.

Key data

Aircraft type	Airborne early warning and control turboprop
Length	27.3 m
Wingspan	24.8 m
Height	7.7 m
Wing area	55.7 m²
Empty weight	14,500 kg
MTOW	23,000 kg
Cruise speed	629 km/h
Service ceiling	9,144 m
Range	3,705 km
Endurance	570 min
Powerplant	2 × Rolls-Royce (Allison) AE 2100A
Power per engine	4,152 hp
Max weapons load	0 kg
Payload	5,500 kg
Crew	7

Powerplant

2 × Rolls-Royce (Allison) AE 2100A turboprops, 3,096 kW (4,152 shp) each — the airliner's powerplant unchanged — with six-bladed Dowty propellers.

Armament

None: it is an unarmed surveillance platform.

Cargo capacity

The passenger cabin gives way to a mission compartment with five operator consoles and a total crew of seven. The dorsal Erieye antenna, an S-band active electronically scanned array, sits above the fuselage.

Range conditions

3,705 km (2,000 NM) range and more than 9.5 hours endurance. Ceiling of 9,144 m (30,000 ft), reached in fifteen minutes, and a patrol speed of 296 km/h; surveillance coverage exceeds 500,000 km².