Italy, Germany upgrading identification friend-or-foe systems

BASILDON, England, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- The NATO Support Agency has given Selex ES a $4 million contract to provide four SIR-M5-E interrogator friend-or-foe systems to the Italian Air Force.

The IFF systems will equip four FPS-117 defense radar systems by Lockheed Martin, a three-dimension, long-range, phased radar system.

The SIR-M5-E IFF has a range of more than 279 miles and was developed by Selex ES to meet NATO and U.S. military standards.

The Mode 5 system can clearly recognize aircraft detected by the air defense radar, even in a crowded environment and with electronic jamming, Selex ES said.

"This contract is a demonstration of how Selex ES's IFF products are developed with interoperability and common standards in mind, which makes them easy to integrate with radar systems designed by third-party manufacturers," the company said.

"Previously, in January 2012, the Italian Ministry of Defense ordered two SIR-M5-E to equip the two Italian Air Force TPS -77 mobile air defense radar systems manufactured by Lockheed Martin."

IFF systems are essential in air defense systems for discriminating between friendly and enemy aircraft, and a program is under way to upgrade all IFF NATO systems by 2020.

Germany's IFF systems on aircraft, ships and in use on Army ground stations are being upgraded by Cassidian, a subsidiary of EADS.

Under a contract from the Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support, Cassidian is converting existing MSSR 2000 I secondary radar systems to the new Mode 5 standard.

EADS said Cassidian will undertake the project in two phases. First it will modernize the MSSR 2000 I, or Monopulse Secondary Surveillance Radar, on one German Navy ship in each class as well as a German Army mobile system and two ground radar systems. In the second phase, it will modernize all remaining naval and ground secondary radars and IFF transponders aboard aircraft.

EADS did not disclose the value of the contract to Cassidian, the number of units to be modernized and the contract's timeline.

Unlike the Mode 4 IFF system in current use by the German military, Mode 5 uses sophisticated encryption techniques to protect against electronic counter-measures.

"During the U.S. Army's Bold Quest 2013 exercise, Cassidian provided the participating German troops with IFF equipment supporting Mode 5 for the entire action chain: MSSR 2000 I interrogators deployed in a German Air Force C160 Transall mission aircraft and state-of-the-art QRTK3/4NG cryptographic computers." EADS said. "This equipment proved its interoperability with the [NATO] alliance partners' Mode 4 and Mode 5 IFF systems and demonstrated the problem-free functioning of the next-generation Mode 5 IFF standard, which is to be introduced by NATO forces from 2014."

Cassidian IFF systems for ground and naval forces are in use in Britain and France.