Four foreign militaries have bought it. Europe’s biggest defence contractors have built it into their platforms. The National Guard hasn’t touched it yet.
The system is RFHunter®, built by Cypriot company SignalGeneriX. It detects, analyses, and geolocates radio frequency emissions — in plain terms, it can read the electromagnetic environment and pinpoint exactly where and when hostile communications are being broadcast.
Field tests have confirmed the capability works.
The Russia-Ukraine war has made that kind of technology impossible to ignore. Electronic warfare has shaped the conflict from the start, and one of RFHunter®’s most direct applications is locating the operators of enemy drones — a problem every modern military is now taking seriously.
The system is also built for use outside the battlefield. Border forces can deploy it to intercept communications from smuggling and trafficking networks along land and sea routes.
Search-and-rescue teams can use it to detect signals from missing persons at sea, buying precious time in an operation where minutes matter.
RFHunter® comes in multiple configurations. There is a manpack version for a single operator in the field, fixed installations that act as permanent electronic sentries over critical sites, variants integrated into armoured and robotic vehicles, and an airborne version for deployment on drones or VTOL platforms.
The system’s international credibility is not in question. With Cyprus Ministry of Defence backing and European Defence Fund support, SignalGeneriX has embedded RFHunter® into some of Europe’s most advanced defence programmes.
It has been tested on General Dynamics’ ASCOD armoured vehicle, linked to Spanish firm Indra’s battle management system, incorporated into solutions by German company PLATH, and integrated into MBDA’s AKERON missile turret aboard Milrem Robotics’ autonomous combat vehicle.
Company CEO Tasos Kounoudis told philenews that four countries have chosen RFHunter® — he declined to name them for security reasons.
The system has also won first prize twice at the Army Technology Excellence Awards 2024, a competition whose past winners include some of the world’s largest defence companies.
SignalGeneriX is currently showing RFHunter® at the World Defence Show in Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s largest defence exhibitions, alongside German partner PLATH.
It is the only Cypriot system at the show. National Guard Chief Emmanouel Theodorou visited the stand and was briefed on the system’s capabilities and how it is being used in other countries.
The National Guard could move to acquire the system — either through the SAFE programme or through the state budget — and doing so would strengthen Cyprus’s position in the European defence ecosystem.
