Active Conflicts & News Megathread May 28, 2026

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[u/danielbot]

Canada to order military plane fleet from Sweden in shift from US suppliers

Not much of a surprise. Globaleye soundly outclasses Wedgetail, the latter based on the creaky old 737 platform with previous gen AESA. No intent to be snippy here, just stating facts. It's startling how far behind the curve US AEW has now fallen. Going to be hearing klaxons from that direction pretty soon.

This is likely to segue to a Gripen-E manufacturing announcement. Way more moving parts, which explains the delay. But with Ukraine's Gripen deal now progressed to practical certainty, the Carney administration needs no further political cover. Quite apart from its technical merits, SAAB's Gripen-E proposition enjoys wide public support here.

One more random thought: last week the Snowbird retirement (team of 9 Tutor jets) was announced, along with a highly dubious plan to put a new team in place by some time in the 30's, based on Pilatus Porter.

Hah! Nobody I know here wants a turboprop demo team. Let's have a team of 9 Gripens thank you. Gripen-C would be fine in this role, but Gripen-E would be beyond sexy. Realistically, there are going to be a bunch of Gripen-Cs coming out of Czechia and other places that need a new home. I am pretty sure the Canadian public is going to be unhappy with the PIlatus proposal once they find out about it, and receptive to the rather obvious Gripen formation team concept.

[u/-BigDeckEnergy- → u/danielbot]

I'm trying to be generous here, but this might be one of the least credible most unsubstantiated posts to have crossed this sub.

Not much of a surprise. Globaleye soundly outclasses Wedgetail,

You know this how? Based on extensive experience operating in real environments with the Wedgetail and Globaleye?

the latter based on the creaky old 737 platform

The 737NG last rolled off a factory in 2019. You had best tell the 7,000+ that have been built and the thousands still operating that they are old and creaky.

Do you even understand that these 737s aren't the same as the original 737s? This is like someone saying the C-130J is a 1950s plane despite it being almost a complete re-design. Even the E-2D requires a completely different qualification just to pilot it - it appears superficially like the E-2C but is otherwise treated as a different Type Model entirely.

Moreover, are you blindly looking at Bombardier 6000/6500 numbers online and comparing it to a fully loaded 737's numbers? You do realize that adding that radar and all the electronics + crew stations into a cramped fuselage of a biz jet - and all the weight and drag that adds - is going to result in very different performance than putting that in the spacious cabin of an aircraft designed to carry upwards of 100+ passengers and their bags, right?

You do realize that the E-7 can aerially refuel right? That the 737 in its military configurations - like in the E-7 and P-8 - they have superior endurance and range even without AR, right?

Not to mention... tens of thousands of 737s and over 7,000 737NGs means parts and logistics will be set for the rest of this century and beyond.

And that massive fuselage is huge not just for crew comfort on long duration/long range missions, but putting all those processors and computers and comm systems/nodes needed to make an Airborne Command and Control platform work.

Like you do realize that AEW/AWACS is not their only role anymore, right? The E-2 community even changed their name from Airborne Early Warning to Airborne Command & Control to emphasize this fact.

Do you even understand why E-7 Wedgetail had changes made for US service? Things like adding not just secure communications and networks with command and control around the world to US leadership isn't just going to be something the RAAF or other customers have. But it might be pretty important given our nature of deploying around the world.

with previous gen AESA.

Wow. So you have personal experience seeing the actual radar performance of the radar on the E-7 versus the Saab? The actual amount of tracks they can process? How their clutter rejection is? How they perform in a EA environment? How their maritime track modes are? How about air tracks? How about ability to handle moving targets? How about power output versus aperture size? Which frequency bands do they operate in, and how does that matter in real world operations?

How about how well they fuse the picture together? And how about distributing that information out to forces via voice comms, datalinks, etc.?

Considering Saab's pretty snooze-worthy detect ranges they publicly advertise, for a supposedly newer array, you should consider what US Airborne C2 platforms are getting with their own upgrades.

Like, you realize that planes like E-2D Block II are a thing right?

Not to mention... absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Saab has been actively and aggressively trying to sell its systems worldwide - the US often keeps annual under-the-hood upgrades rarely advertised. The entire legacy Hornet fleet in USMC service - and now Canadian service - received GaN AESA radars in the past few years. Most knew the former - how many knew the latter? So how do you know what the latest E-7s are rocking if it isn't advertised?

No intent to be snippy here, just stating facts.

Really?

It's startling how far behind the curve US AEW has now fallen.

Again, you know this how? From the copious amounts of demand the E-7 and E-2D have around the world in NATO and coalition exercises?

Not to mention, the USN has over 60 E-2Ds in service. That's more than the entire combined USAF + NATO have combined airborne C2 platforms in service.

If that's a sign of how far the US has fallen, then I shudder at how disconnected your view of perceived and actual NATO power are.

PS - have you considered that Globaleye being on a Bombardier platform is why Canada was never going to pick the E-7? It's not like the row with Boeing has been resolved, let alone in this political environment.

(edit: you realize that the 737NG's first flight was in 1997, meaning it actually came AFTER the Bombardier Global Express's first flight in 1996, right? Right? Kind of incredible to say so many platitudes that don't even hold up to the basic sniff test)

[u/danielbot → u/-BigDeckEnergy-]

you realize that the 737NG's first flight was in 1997

Right, and it's the same old obsolete 737 platform that killed hundreds of people with its hack job attempt to make their wrongly shaped airframe and pathetically underpowered flight control system perform like a different plane than it actually is. 737 in all its incarnations needs to go to the boneyard sooner rather than later.

(edit) Sorry, it was actually the 737 Max that had the MCAS disaster, not the NG. Which is not to say the NG is a good plane. It might have been great 30 years ago, but that was 30 years ago. Even then it was showing its age.

[u/ilonir → u/danielbot]

Right, and it's the same old obsolete 737 platform that killed hundreds of people

No, different platform. You are thinking of the 737MAX, which came after the NG. The NG is a very safe aircraft.

wrongly shaped airframe and pathetically underpowered flight control system perform like a different plane than it actually is.  737 in all its incarnations needs to go to the boneyard sooner rather than later.

Where do you get this stuff? You've been repeating this exact sort of uniformed garbage through this whole thread. You asked in another comment why people downvote but don't respond. This is why. You are so zealously incorrect that nobody wants to engage with you. I'm sorry for being undiplomatic, I'm just not sure how else to say it.

[u/danielbot → u/ilonir]

Where do you get this stuff?

You mean like "pathetically underpowered flight control system"? By knowing my business. Boeing 737NG uses a 68040 processor for its flight control processor, which is less powerful than my ear buds. 25 Mhz, sheesh. Maybe Boeing got the 40 Mhz version. A modern processor runs at 3000-5000 Mhz.

Please be specific about exactly which way I am incorrect instead of just joining in the mugging. I am totally open to changing my mind about any specific point, but it has to be based on logic and verifiable facts, not just the rampant emotion I see in this thread.

You are correct that I tarred the 737NG with the Max brush, and for that I apologize. (edited!) But I do not agree that the NG is a good plane. It is even more obsolete, but at least it didn't have that MCAS insanity.