Saab receives order for Arexis sensor suite for German Eurofighters
Saab has received an order from Airbus Defence and Space for the Arexis Electronic Warfare (EW) sensor suite. The contract period is 2024-2026.
The German defence procurement office announced in June 2023 that it had selected Saab’s Arexis sensor suite for the Eurofighter EK, an EW variant of the German Air Force’s Eurofighter aircraft. This order marks the start of the first phase of Saab’s delivery of Arexis within this programme.
In March 2024, Saab received the order from Airbus, which will equip 15 of the German Air Force’s Eurofighters for EW missions with solutions including Saab’s Arexis. These aircraft will replace the German Air Force’s Tornado ECR, which are set to be decommissioned from 2030.
Saab Arexis is a state-of-the-art EW self-protection system for combat aircraft. By using high instantaneous bandwidth, interferometry, triangulation and artificial intelligence (AI), it convinces with very high detection rates against frequency and pulse agile emitters. Arexis is modular and can be adapted to almost any modern platform. As with the Tornado weapon system, only one adaptation is necessary, plus the cost of the equipment per aircraft. Saab can support the German customer from its Nuremberg base, and a significant contribution in the area of a key technology can be made by the German partner industry. Sovereign German control over the entire system is guaranteed.
Saab’s Arexis Electronic Warfare (EW) suite delivers crucial situational awareness. Whether fully integrated on-board an aircraft, in a missionised pod, or as payload on an unmanned vehicle, it gives unrivalled defensive and offensive electronic warfare capabilities. Arexis solution gives the ability to detect and stay ahead of all possible threats - today and in the future. By combining the very latest in self-protection and Electronic Attack, Arexis makes the fighter more than ready to counter any threats. Letting the pilot focus on the task at hand, ensuring that the missions will be successful.
Arexis – insights and background
Arexis is Saab's latest generation of electronic warfare systems for flying platforms and represents the current state of the art in a very powerful product family. Arexis was developed to effectively counter the most modern frequency and pulse agile threat systems. . The starting point of the development, which took about eight years, was the already high-performance system of the Gripen C/D (adapted to the Tornado from 2012). Arexis is used on Gripen E and in the future also on Gripen F, selected modules of the Arexis family are already used on other platforms. In addition to a very large instantaneous bandwidth, fully digital recording, transmission and processing of signals, highly accurate angular measurement is fundamental to the system's impressive performance in an agile emitter scenario. Although all electromagnetic parameters can be variable, the position of the emitter(s) is a variable that is limited in its agility. Arexis uses interferometry and triangulation to locate emitters very accurately in a very short time, this can be done singularly but also across platforms. The use of Time Difference Of Arrival (TDOA) is also possible.
Unlike legacy systems, Arexis uses artificial intelligence to detect and classify emitter profiles and operating status. In order to enable subsequent stationary evaluation, it is of course possible to record captured data in scalable granularity. Arexis can transmit the acquired situation picture to a wide variety of subsystems of a carrier platform via standardised interfaces. Detailed settings can be made separately and transparently for each interface using mission data. On the active side, state-of-the-art AESA antennas (AESA - Actively Electronically Scanned Array) with the latest gallium nitride technology are used. This is convincing due to its higher power output. Using DRFM (Digital Radio Frequency Memory) and powerful processors, a large number of agile emitters can be effectively jammed or deceived simultaneously. Coordinated ejection of decoys is also freely programmable. Arexis would also be usable for agile, broadband, cross-platform data transmission.
The electromagnetic spectrum
In the course of the last decades, the electromagnetic spectrum has gained enormously in importance. Proprietary and adversary sensors, data radio and other means of communication depend on the use of the electromagnetic spectrum. The availability of sensors and radio data is nowadays essential in order to be able to adequately assess the situation and act in a timely manner. Even a successful deployment of weapons, especially medium and long-range weapons, can be determined by the unrestricted use of own sensor technology and data transmission. Accordingly, the usability of the electromagnetic spectrum as well as the prevention of its use by the adversary has become of decisive importance for mission success. It is no longer only an important medium for sensors and data transmission, but at the same time also a contested "space", occasionally even referred to as its own domain.
What happened in 2024?
2024 has been an important year for Saab, marked by significant developments across various sectors. With a strong emphasis on innovation, defense, and sustainability, Saab has continued to solidify its position as a leader in cutting-edge technology.
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