DSEI 2025: Saab Integrates Technologies For Situational Awareness Electronic Warfare And Reduced Detectability.

During DSEI UK 2025, Saab presented on a 4x4 vehicle the combined effect of four of its most advanced solutions: Tactical Electronics, Barracuda Camouflage Systems, Sirius Compact, and Giraffe 1X radar. The demonstration highlighted the fusion of camouflage, electronic warfare, radar surveillance, and digital battlefield integration into a single deployable platform. In an era where survivability and information dominance decide the outcome of operations, this convergence of technologies illustrates how land forces can gain a decisive advantage against increasingly complex threats. The relevance lies not only in the technologies themselves but in how their integration provides militaries with unmatched flexibility and resilience in contested environments.
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By combining Sirius Compact, Giraffe 1X, Tactical Electronics, and Barracuda camouflage systems on a single 4x4 platform, Saab has highlighted the operational value of integrating complementary technologies into one deployable solution (Picture source: Army Recognition Group)

The Giraffe 1X radar is at the core of this architecture, providing high-performance three-dimensional air surveillance with a compact design optimized for mobile deployment. Its ability to track the full aerial domain, including low, small, and slow targets such as drones, gives commanders real-time control of the airspace. Complementing this radar picture, the Sirius Compact electronic warfare sensor network silently monitors and classifies radar and datalink emissions, extending situational awareness beyond what traditional surveillance radars can provide. Unlike conventional active sensors that reveal their position, Sirius Compact operates passively, making it far more difficult to detect and target. Its modular and scalable design allows it to be mounted on vehicles, drones, ships, or even carried by dismounted soldiers, providing militaries with a flexible tool to build layered electronic defense and early-warning networks. By silently expanding the detection perimeter, Sirius Compact turns every platform into a node in a wider electronic intelligence web, a capability that has become vital in conflicts characterized by heavy use of radars, drones, and electronic countermeasures.

Supporting these sensors, Saab’s Tactical Electronics enable seamless distribution of the recognized operational picture across the platform. Its ultra-rugged hardware and near-zero-latency video feeds provide Local Situational Awareness Systems, driver’s vision enhancement, and C4I integration that are fully compliant with NATO standards. These digital capabilities ensure that the sensor data collected by Sirius Compact and Giraffe 1X is immediately available to crews and command networks, enabling faster and more precise reactions to threats.

On the protection side, Saab’s Barracuda Camouflage Systems represent the other half of the survivability equation. Developed over decades, Barracuda solutions are designed to reduce the probability of detection across multiple spectrums, including visual, infrared, thermal, and radar. The Barracuda Mobile Camouflage System (MCS) enables vehicles to remain concealed even while maneuvering, without impairing mobility or performance. By lowering the vehicle’s signature against thermal imagers and radar-guided threats, it directly reduces vulnerability to modern surveillance and targeting systems. At the individual level, the Barracuda Soldier System gives troops lightweight, reversible camouflage adapted for day and night conditions, blending seamlessly into diverse environments. In practice, this means that both vehicles and soldiers can operate with a much lower detection profile, making it harder for opponents to find, fix, and engage them.

The development of these systems reflects Saab’s long history of adapting to changing operational environments. Barracuda camouflage has evolved from simple concealment nets to sophisticated multispectral systems that actively counter a wide range of modern detection methods. Similarly, the Giraffe radar family has steadily transitioned from larger, fixed air defense radars to compact, highly deployable units like the Giraffe 1X. When compared to historical equivalents, such as the Cold War-era systems that relied on separate and less mobile radar, EW, and camouflage assets, Saab’s integration marks a generational leap toward modular, scalable, and rapidly deployable packages capable of covering all aspects of detection, concealment, and electronic protection.

The strategic implications of this fusion are significant. Militaries increasingly face adversaries employing drones, electronic warfare, and precision fires in complex environments. Saab’s integration provides a coherent response by delivering detection of both physical and electronic threats, digitalized situational awareness for faster decision-making, and concealment against counter-surveillance. For NATO members and partners, such capabilities reinforce the principle of survivability in multi-domain operations, particularly against technologically sophisticated adversaries. On a geopolitical level, showcasing such integration at DSEI underscores the role of European industry in supplying interoperable, exportable, and future-ready defense solutions.

By combining Sirius Compact, Giraffe 1X, Tactical Electronics, and Barracuda camouflage systems on a single 4x4 platform, Saab has highlighted the operational value of integrating complementary technologies into one deployable solution. The result is a system capable of detecting, protecting, concealing, and coordinating simultaneously, providing commanders with the tools to maintain initiative in contested battlespaces. This demonstration at DSEI UK 2025 underlines the shift toward modular, integrated systems that enhance both survivability and effectiveness on the modern battlefield.

Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group

Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.