Brenda Marie Rivers
Raytheon has developed an updated identification-friend-or-foe system that will enable pilots to identify friendly aircraft through encrypted communications and mitigate instances of friendly fire. The Mode 5 IFF system features modernized signaling waveforms that support the transmission of encrypted codes between transponders quicker than the system’s Mode 4 predecessor, Raytheon said Friday.
Frank Whiston, director of IFF at Raytheon’s integrated communication systems segment, said Mode 5 helps address the Mode 4 system’s inability to identify friendly aircraft over long distances.
Joe Beissner, the company’s senior manager of business development for tactical airborne systems, noted that the updated version’s ability to limit radio frequency transmissions will prevent cases of enemy forces using an aircraft’s RF energy against itself.
NATO has directed that by June 2020, the Mode 5 IFF system must be implemented on all IFF platforms.
