Japanese Navy aircraft IFF transponders upgraded
Raytheon is carrying out work to update Japan’s P-1 maritime surveillance aircraft by upgrading the aircraft Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) transponders with modern technologies, including a new waveform that identifies and tracks military aircraft.
Raytheon is conducting the work in partnership with Hitachi Kokusai. A total of 70 planes will be upgraded with the new transponders during the next several years and Raytheon hopes the programme will lead to additional modernisation opportunities within the Asia-Pacific region.
Military IFF systems provide time-critical positive identification of friendly forces. The process is initiated automatically by a ground or airborne interrogator that transmits a secure message. The transponder then receives the interrogation and generates a secure response.
In advance of the 2020 phase out of the legacy identification system, NATO and other countries are gradually adopting the Mode 5 waveform due to its higher data security protection.
Scott Whatmough, vice president, Space and Airborne Systems' Integrated Communication Systems, Raytheon, said: ‘The Japanese Navy will have an increasingly secure and interoperable next generation IFF waveform that does not interfere with other flight-tracking systems.’
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