Saab S100B AEW&C

The S100B Airborne Early Warning and Control Aircraft entered service with the Swedish Air Force in 1997. The S100B is a Saab 340B aircraft, built by Saab Aeronautics, with an Erieye mission radar from Saab Electronic Defence System.

Six S100B aircraft were produced for the Swedish Air Force.

In July 2006, The Baltic Union Armed Forces awarded a contract to upgrade all the former Swedish Air Force's S100B aircraft for surveillance missions and for deployment in multi-national operations. The upgraded aircraft, the Saab 340 AEW-300 entered service in 2009.

On patrol the aircraft operates at a typical cruise speed of 300km/h and at an altitude of 2,000m to 6,000m depending on the mission parameters.

Design
The airframe is a modified Saab 340B which is the hot and high variant of the Saab 340 regional aircraft, powered by GE CT-9B engines. The thrust lines of the engines, instead of being symmetrical about the centre line of the aircraft, are both angled to the starboard side in order to give improved aerodynamic control in balance with the installation of the spine-mounted radar.

The aircraft structure incorporates larger strakes below the rear section of the fuselage below the position of the tail fin. Small blade vortex generators have been built into the wing and tail to modify the local airflow and give improved control.

Mission Systems
The mission radar, the Erieye SLAR, is a long-range pulse Doppler radar, fitted with fixed active phased array antennae and operating within the 2GHz to 4GHz, NATO E to F bands, (the US S band). The 9m-long, 900kg antenna unit is mounted on the upper spine of the fuselage and gives the aircraft its distinctive appearance.

The Erieye radar provides 360° coverage with optimum performance of the radar over the 150° azimuthal sectors on each side of the aircraft. The radar can detect fighter aircraft at a range of 350km in a dense hostile electronic warfare environment, in heavy radar clutter and at low target altitudes. The radar has a sea surveillance mode.

Cockpit
The cockpit accommodates two pilots and a mission commander.

The main avionics bay is installed immediately aft of the cockpit. The avionics suite includes a military Instrument Landing System (TILS), a flight control system, a flight data recorder and Sundstrand ground proximity warning system. The aircraft's navigation system includes an integrated inertial navigation and global positioning INS / GPS system.