The "Tesla Corps" of NAIS, an advanced electronics research group, noted the value of ECM in fighting the advanced Clan weapons. Unfortunately, ECM systems remain fairly rare and limited to specially designed or modified mechs. The dash of genius the Tesla Corps provided was to make ECM available to ANY Inner Sphere vehicle, assuming they could spare a little room and mass.
The Cherub ECM Suite is smaller than the Guardian or Angel, and much cheaper. The use of low cost, off the shelf parts made it considerably larger than it might've been - despite only covering a few percent of the area a Guardian manages, it is fully 1/3 the size of a Guardian ECM Suite.
It only protects the vehicle mounting it and a surrounding area for 15 meters radius, making the Cherub of little use for blocking the line of sight for various hostile communication systems or protecting nearby friendlies. It is quite capable of blocking all the normal threats a Guardian covers and counts as a single Guardian for purposes of fighting ECCM. Its simple design, while making the Cherub bulky, eases and reduces maintenance considerably. |