UK MoD moves on IFF standardisation

Raytheon UK and Thales UK will conduct a study into upgrading the British armed forces’ existing Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) systems to Mode 5 to address NATO's requirement for a new standard of IFF across all platforms. The Raytheon-Thales team was selected for the one-year study by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The companies have teamed to offer the Thales Bluegate products covering the majority of naval and land system Mode 5 Interrogator applications and Raytheon UK's IFF4810 Mode 5 upgrade solution for most air and naval Mode 5 transponder uses.

Raytheon and Thales' IFF Mode 5 subsystems use a common US-sourced KIV-77 Mode 4/5 cryptographic computer, which is more secure, deception resistant and already in service with US armed forces.

Raytheon and Thales are the IFF incumbents on more than 97% of the platforms involved in the Mode 5 upgrade.  The low risk approach builds on prior Authority and company investment in Successor Identification Friend or Foe (SIFF) and Mode 5 while benefiting from the lessons learnt during the successful delivery of the SIFF capability.

Richard Daniel, chief executive, Raytheon UK, said: ‘The Raytheon and Thales collaboration combines our technical knowledge, proven equipment and long collaborative experience with the MoD. We are set to provide the fastest and most cost efficient solution which will exploit our SIFF installed base and provide proven low risk upgrades to the UK legacy platforms.’

Victor Chavez, CEO, Thales UK, added: ‘By bringing together best-in-class capability and extensive knowledge of UK platforms from both companies, we will deliver a low risk and cost effective solution to this important UK programme. Our respective companies have already delivered Mode 5 IFF to a number of NATO forces and this programme gives us the opportunity to extend this critical upgrade to UK platforms to maintain their interoperability in future NATO coalition forces.’

Raytheon's established SIFF support infrastructure aided the fleet-wide introduction of Mode S upgrades in recent years, establishing a proven model for delivery of the Mode 5 upgrade.