NATO taps European giants Airbus, Saab for airlift, AWACS fleet

NATO taps European giants Airbus, Saab for airlift, AWACS fleet details a major push to expand Alliance airlift, refueling, and surveillance capabilities announced at the Ankara summit. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the organization will build a strategic airlift fleet using Airbus A400M transport aircraft, add an A330 MRTT tanker, and spend about $4.5 billion to acquire up to 10 Saab GlobalEye surveillance planes to replace aging AWACS. The MRTT project includes nine A330s based at Eindhoven in the Netherlands, which can also function as troop or passenger aircraft, and NATO aims to expand the tankers to 12 over time. Rutte made the announcement on Tuesday as allies unveiled defense deals valued in the billions ahead of President Donald Trump’s summit later that evening. NATO says participating countries include Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. The GlobalEye choice favors Saab over Boeing, and NATO described the system as targeting threats including drone swarms using a business-jet-based platform.