Desert Dolphins: Unwrapping the UAE's surveillance bizjets
The United Arab Emirates Air Force operates a fleet of advanced ISR and AEW&C bizjets, boosting the state's autonomous intelligence and surveillance amid growing regional instability
The United Arab Emirates Air Force, while relatively obscure, is among the world’s leading ISR bizjet operators. The Gulf state has received substantial outside (including covert) support to enhance its ISR capabilities against a shared adversary, namely Iran, with bizjet-based platforms playing a pivotal role. After modernisation and indigenization efforts, the UAE Air Force now operates a fleet of heavily modified Bombardier Global 6500 jets for ISR and AEW&C missions. Fifteen years into their initiation, details about these programs still remain extremely limited. However, leaked documents and photos taken during the early test flights reveal interesting details, including a link to an unexpected country.
Read the post below if you want to learn the basics about the capabilities, acronyms, and mission types of these ‘bizjets of war’:
While the United States has been flying ISR aircraft and operating surface-based surveillance systems in the region for decades, the UAE has been increasingly investing in its own capabilities to boost the Gulf state’s autonomous intelligence and surveillance. Around 2010, the country decided to acquire two heavily modified Global 6500 bizjets under a program codenamed Project Dolphin. The UAE’s Ministry of Defence contracted Abu Dhabi-based Advanced Integrated System (AIS), which is owned by an Emirati family known to be involved in the country’s intelligence establishment, to procure two bizjets for long-range ISR missions. Through the Paradise Papers, a massive leak of files investigated by the Guardian and media partners, it is now publicly known (and widely reported) that AIS subcontracted the Project Dolphin contract to Swiss-based AGT International, which would manage the acquirement of the two airframes and the relevant sensor, communication and self-defence systems. The Swiss-based company is owned by an Israeli entrepreneur with links to the Israeli defence establishment, highlighting the largely unacknowledged but increasing (at least before the ongoing war) cooperation between Israel and Gulf states in operations against their shared adversary: Iran.
After a (reported) planned deal with Fokker fell through, Marshall Aerospace was subcontracted for the modification process. While also detailed in the leaked papers, the company’s involvement became evident when the first modified bizjet emerged at the Marshall’s Cambridge facility in April 2017. Later that year, the heavily modified Global 6500 made its first test flight, followed by a test campaign out of several British airports and a UK MoD test base. The test flight campaign of the second Project Dolphin jet kicked off soon later in the summer of 2018, after which the jet was flown to the UAE for further testing and operational missions.
While official UAE government reports barely acknowledge its existence, the leaked papers as well as public photos reveal some of the capabilities of the two Project Dolphin jets, which were each acquired for approximately $43 million. As its primary sensor suite, the jets are equipped with a SIGINT sensor suite, which is also evident from the large number of antennas underneath the fuselage. The high operational altitude and long endurance of the Global 6500 make SIGINT particularly effective as it allows for long-range sensing over long time periods, especially compared to older, often turboprop-based, SIGINT aircraft. Likely (partially) housed in the large canoe fairing underneath the fuselage, these electronic intelligence and communications intelligence sensor systems were acquired for thirty-two and forty million dollars, respectively.
This primary sensor suite is accompanied by a long-range oblique electro-optical sensor, which is likely housed in the aft section of the canoe fairing. This camera system, which costed more than twenty million dollars each, is capable of capturing images at extremely long distances. In an unclassified report from the late 1990s of the suspected camera system, people can still be recognised on images taken from a 30 km (18 mi) distance, and its capabilities have likely only improved ever since.
These SIGINT and EO/IR sensors, however, are not the only ISR sensors to fly on UAE Air Force bizjets. In 2015, the UAE placed an order with Saab for three GlobalEye AEW&C jets, with deliveries completed by 2021. That same year, the UAE expanded its fleet by ordering an additional two GlobalEye aircraft, which were delivered just three years later in 2024. Before the fifth and final modified Global 6500 was delivered to the Emirati Air Force, it was used by Saab to demonstrate its capabilities to the French Air Force, a potential future operator of the AEW&C bizjet. More information on the sensors and capabilities of the GlobalEye bizjets can be found in the post on that visit:
While the GlobalEye jets have secondary maritime patrol capabilities, the UAE Air Force was (and possibly still is) looking at acquiring dedicated maritime patrol bizjets. In 2019, Aquila Aerospace, a then-new company based in the UAE, announced it had secured a contract to supply the UAE Air Force with at least one and up to two modified Challenger 650 jets. The bizjet was intended to be equipped with maritime search radar, SIGINT, and EO/IR capabilities, similar to the configuration often seen on American contractor-owned maritime patrol bizjets. However, even though deliveries were planned within two years of the announcement, there has been no sign of progress nearly six years later. Instead, the bizjet displayed by Aquila Aerospace at the air show is now in use as a VIP transport for the UAE Air Force, without any exterior modifications. Given the lack of updates and the bizjet still actively in service without any modifications, the program was likely either quietly cancelled or the announcement was not legitimate.
Conclusion
The UAE’s silent shift towards more autonomous ISR capabilities, particularly against Iran, is exemplified by the Gulf state’s impressive fleet of five GlobalEye AEW&C and two Project Dolphin ISR bizjets. While the GlobalEye jets already provide extensive airborne situational awareness, the two ‘Desert Dolphins’ are critical in Emirati intelligence gathering on Iran and other adversaries. Equipped with a suite of advanced SIGINT and optical sensors, the capabilities of the two Global 6500-based ISR jets allow for long-range sensing over long durations. Particularly attractive in the volatile Middle East, these capabilities are also a key explainer for the global increase in ‘bizjets of war’ amid heightened security threats worldwide.
Thank you
Thank you to Chris Lofting for the photos, and thank you for reading this post! As always, feel free to reach out with your thoughts, questions and/or suggestions. If you have information or photos about ISR bizjets, you can always contact me via DMs (@bizjetsofwar) and/or send an email (see the About page). You will always stay anonymous and the information/photos will not be shared without explicit approval, but please do not send information you are not allowed to share.