Leonardo develops new passive battlefield SIGINT system

Leonardo unveiled a new land-based electronic warfare and signals intelligence system at the AOC Europe conference in Helsinki, Finland.

The system, called Guardian Vantage, is a passive surveillance platform that detects, recognizes, identifies, and locates enemy emissions across the electromagnetic spectrum without generating any signals of its own, a design choice that keeps the operator invisible to enemy detection while building a comprehensive electronic picture of the threat environment.

The core concept behind Guardian Vantage is straightforward in principle and technically demanding in execution. Every military system that radiates signals, including radars, communications networks, drone command links, and electronic warfare emitters, leaves a fingerprint in the electromagnetic spectrum. Guardian Vantage collects those fingerprints, compares them against a threat library, and constructs what Leonardo calls an electronic order of battle: a continuously updated map of detected enemy systems ranked by threat priority.

A commander using this system does not just know that enemy forces are in a general area. The system tells them specifically what emitting systems are present, where they are located with precision sufficient for targeting, and by analyzing patterns of activity, what those forces are likely to do next. Per Leonardo’s product documentation, the system can transcribe radio traffic in real time and use large language models to translate foreign languages into the operator’s native tongue, a capability that removes a traditional intelligence bottleneck in multinational or out-of-area operations.

Detect identifies signals of interest automatically based on user-defined parameters. Recognise applies measured signal characteristics to classify a wide range of threat signals without operator intervention. Identify uses built-in classifiers to determine the exact type of signal with high certainty. Locate then applies what the company describes in its datasheet as “market leading super resolution direction finding and geolocation” to establish precise positions.

The system can operate as a single sensor or as part of a networked architecture enabling multi-sensor geolocation, where signals detected from multiple positions are triangulated to fix a target location with considerably greater precision than any single platform could achieve. That networked mode matters because direction finding from a single fixed point provides a bearing, not a location, and crossing two or more bearings is what produces a usable grid reference for fires or maneuver.

Guardian Vantage also incorporates a Radar Electronic Support Measures capability, abbreviated RESM, designed to detect and characterize radar emitters specifically. The company describes this module as ultra-low SWaP, using the defense engineering shorthand for Size, Weight, and Power, meaning the radar detection function adds minimal physical burden to the platform and draws minimal electrical power. That matters for vehicle integration, where space and power budgets are constrained.

The system also supports electronic intelligence, or ELINT, functions, building strategic intelligence about unidentified communications and non-communications emitters over time. Where tactical SIGINT answers immediate questions about what is on the battlefield right now, ELINT builds the deeper picture of adversary electronic order of battle that supports operational and strategic planning.

The venue for this unveiling was not incidental. AOC Europe 2026 runs May 19 through 21 at the Messukeskus Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre under the theme “Re-Arming Europe for Electromagnetic Spectrum Superiority,” according to the Association of Old Crows. The conference theme reflects exactly what the war in Ukraine has demonstrated at scale: that electromagnetic spectrum dominance is not a niche capability for specialist units but a foundational requirement for any force operating against a peer adversary. Russian and Ukrainian forces have fought an intensive parallel war in the electromagnetic spectrum since February 2022, with jamming, spoofing, drone frequency exploitation, and counter-drone radio frequency detection all playing roles in tactical outcomes that no amount of conventional firepower alone could have determined. Leonardo Campaign Manager Mike Brown made the operational stakes explicit at the Helsinki unveiling, saying Guardian Vantage “turns the electromagnetic spectrum into a decisive operational advantage, enabling commanders to see what the adversary is doing and where they are operating, ultimately providing an indication of their intent.”

The system runs on what Leonardo describes as an open architecture aligned with UK STICS and CMOSS standards, as well as Open VPX, MORA, AOCO, and GVA frameworks. Those acronyms matter to procurement officials and system integrators more than to operational users, but the practical implication is significant: Guardian Vantage is designed to be updated without replacing hardware, integrated onto platforms it was not originally designed for, and connected to wider command and control networks without custom engineering. The U.S. Army has spent years pursuing the same philosophy through its Modular Open Systems Approach, and its Terrestrial Layer System, the Army vehicle-based SIGINT and EW program awarded to Lockheed Martin, represents the American version of the same operational problem Guardian Vantage is trying to solve for allied markets.