Schiebel and Selex ES, a Finmeccanica company, have successfully integrated and flown the SAGE electronic warfare system on an unmanned air system for the first time. On 12th December 2013 the system flew on-board a Schiebel CAMCOPTER® S-100 UAS.

SAGE is a digital Electronic Support Measure (ESM) and Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) system for Radio Frequency (RF) Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions. It enhances situational awareness by passively collecting emitter data from RF sources at a tactically significant range, comparing them with an emitter library and then
identifying and geo-locating any threats.

Pete Forrest, VP Sales for Electronic Warfare at Selex ES said “Armed Forces are facing the two-headed challenge of needing to be able to detect increasingly RF threats while having to operate under tighter budgets. With SAGE, customers have a sophisticated RFdetection and geo-location system available that they can operate cost-effectively on platforms such as the CAMCOPTER® S-100.We are pleased to be working so effectively with Schiebel and look forward to demonstrations around the world in 2014.”

Hans Georg Schiebel, Chairman of the Schiebel Group of companies said “The SAGE integrated simply and quickly into the S-100, proving the flexibility of both the UAS and the ESM and ELINT. SAGE forms a core component of Schiebel’s integrated suite of sensors that will provide decision makers with an unprecedented step change in tactical ISR collection capability”.