Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has unveiled the new Scorpius family of electronic warfare (EW) systems, touting it as the first EW system in the world capable of simultaneously targeting multiple threats, across frequencies and in different directions.
Scorpius is based on the active electronically scanned array (AESA) technology, which, according to the company, provides a breakthrough in EW performance – enabling a new generation of electronic warfare capabilities.
The systems are optimized for use on naval, land, and air warfare platforms, boosting their ability to target a range of threats, including UAVs, ships, missiles, communication links, and low probability of interception (LPOI) radars.
Leveraging AESA’s multi-beam capability, Scorpius can simultaneously scan the entire surrounding region for targets, and deploy narrowly focused beams to interfere with multiple threats across the electromagnetic spectrum.
The system disrupts the operation of the incoming threat’s electromagnetic systems, including radar and electronic sensors, navigation, and data communications.
As explained by IAI, what makes Scorpius special is the “unprecedented receiver sensitivity and transmission power (ERP), far exceeding those of legacy EW systems.” This allows Scorpius to detect multiple threats, of different kinds, simultaneously, from dramatically increased distances, and to address each threat with a customized response.
In its ground designation (Scorpius-G), the system represents a new category of air defense systems: soft-kill air defense, which creates an electronic dome of protection above a wide geographic sector to neutralize a broad range of modern threats.
The naval version, Scorpius-N, is capable of defending ships against advanced threats in the marine arena, including over-the-horizon anti-ship cruise missiles, Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAV) and airborne imaging radars.
The air variant, Scorpius SP, comes in the form of a self-protection pod for combat aircraft, and the Scorpius SJ, a standoff jammer that disrupts enemy aerial and ground-based electromagnetic operations across a vast sector.
What is more, a training variant dubbed Scorpius-T was unveiled last month and already made its debut during the international air force exercise Blue Flag 2021.
