Saab 340 Saab 340 AEW&C (S 100B Argus)

The first thing you notice about the S 100B is its silhouette: instead of the rotating radome of classic AWACS aircraft it carries a fixed beam above the fuselage housing the PS-890 active electronically scanned antenna, the heart of the Erieye system. The solution is lighter in drag than a rotodome but leaves two blind zones, ahead and behind, because each face sweeps a 120-degree sector. In exchange, from 6100 m the system tracks ships, aircraft and missiles out to 300-400 km.

The programme began in the early 1980s, when Sweden's Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) asked Ericsson for an early warning radar and the 340 was chosen as the platform. Six aircraft were produced for the Swedish Air Force; four carried the radar permanently and two were configured for peacetime transport. Two were loaned to Greece while it waited for its EMB-145 Erieye aircraft, two were sold to the United Arab Emirates in 2010 and ended up — after passing through Saab again — with the Polish Air Force, and two more went to Thailand as part of the «Peace Suphanom» package tied to the Gripen.

Against the two pilots of the airline version, the AEW&C flies with a crew of six and an empty weight of 10,300 kg, nearly two tonnes more than a passenger 340B. The airframe, however, is the same: 21.44 m span, 6.97 m height and the 7620 m operating ceiling of the model it comes from. The Thai designation for the type is B.K.1.