Bombardier Global Express Turns 30 With More Military Jets on Order Than in Service
Thirty years after its first flight from Toronto on October 13, 1996, the Bombardier Global Express has become a platform for military special-mission aircraft, and GlobalMilitary.net's inventory data now counts more Global-based military aircraft on order than in service.
On October 13, 1996, the first prototype of the Bombardier Global Express business jet lifted off from Toronto for a maiden flight of 2 hours and 46 minutes, one month later than planned. Thirty years on, the long-range jet announced in October 1991 has become a platform for military special-mission conversions on three continents, and in GMN's inventory data its military order book is now larger than its military fleet in service.
The design shares its fuselage cross-section with the Canadair Regional Jet and the Challenger 600, married to a new wing and tail. Four prototypes carried the flight test program; Canadian type certification followed in July 1998 and the type entered service in July 1999. The family has since grown to include the shorter-range, slightly smaller Global 5000, the Global 6000 and the Global 6500, which entered service in 2019.
Military use of the airframe is not new. The Royal Air Force flew the Global-based Raytheon Sentinel R1 ground-surveillance aircraft from June 2007 to March 2021. In the United States, the E-11A is the US Air Force designation for Global aircraft used as the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN), which relays communications and translates incompatible datalinks between units from high altitude, a role developed from lessons in Afghanistan, according to The Aviationist. The outlet reported that the ninth Global aircraft for the program was welcomed at Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, in September 2025, and that a 2020 crash in Afghanistan had cut the then fleet of E-11As from four to three, with an order for six additional airframes following the year after.
The US Army has followed. DefenseScoop reported on November 25, 2024, that Bombardier Defense had delivered the first Global 6500 for the Army's High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES) intelligence program; the service has given the aircraft the official designation ME-11B, according to The War Zone.
The airborne early warning conversion is Saab's GlobalEye, a Global 6000 carrying the Erieye ER AESA radar, originally developed for the UAE Air Force, which took five Global 6000s for the program. Sweden has three GlobalEye on order. How its fixed side-looking arrays compare with a rotodome is covered in GMN's explainer on early-warning radars.
Other air forces have chosen the airframe for electronic missions. Germany selected the Global 6000 in January 2020 for its PEGASUS (Persistent German Airborne Surveillance System) signals-intelligence program, over the unmanned MQ-4C Triton. Turkey is to have four Global 6000s converted into electronic-warfare platforms. In September 2025, South Korea selected L3Harris to deliver four Global 6500-based airborne early warning and control aircraft.
In GMN's inventory data, the BD-700 Global Express family, which groups the Global 5000, 6000, 6500 and 7500 military airframes, is listed with 13 military operators: 24 aircraft in service and 36 on order. The United States accounts for 5 in service, all USAF E-11As, and 16 on order, split between 4 further E-11As and 12 for the Army. Germany has 6 in service and 4 on order. South Korea has 6 on order, 4 of them airborne early warning and 2 electronic-warfare aircraft. Canada's 6 are planned under a preliminary agreement for GlobalEye, and Turkey has 4 on order. In South Asia, India and Pakistan each operate 2, as do the UAE, Slovakia and Sweden, while Botswana, Switzerland and Malaysia fly 1 each.
GMN lists GlobalEye separately: 5 in service with the UAE and 5 on order, 3 for Sweden and 2 for France. Combined, that gives 29 Global-based military aircraft in service and 41 on order. Thirty years after a first flight that ran a month late, the aircraft still to be delivered outnumber those already in military service.
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