EADS Defence & Security (DS) will ensure the reliability of the French Armed Forces’ friend-or-foe identification systems (IFF) by delivering state-of-the-art encryption equipment. According to an announcement made by the company, Defence Electronics (DE), an integrated activity of EADS DS, has been awarded a contract worth approx. € 30 million by the French procurement authority DGA for upgrading more than 1,000 IFF systems deployed by the French Air Force and Navy.

Identification systems comprising so-called “interrogators” on the ground and “transponders” on board aircraft or ships, automatically exchange data on origin, course, speed, etc. of any target object, thus enabling its precise identification. In the military field, this data exchange is based upon encrypted signals which cannot be analyzed or jammed by hostile forces. Such data supplements the information from other sources and in this way improves monitoring of crisis regions. Moreover, since friendly forces can be identified quickly and reliably, accidental attacks on one’s own or allied forces can be avoided, which is an important requirement, above all in multinational operations.

“Due to the increasing complexity of combat situations and scenarios, identification is today an existential matter for all military operations,” explains Bernd Wenzler, CEO of Defence Electronics. “Only the fast and reliable identification of friendly forces can ensure that dangerous or even fatal incidents can be prevented.”

Defence Electronics has already delivered military transponder and interrogator systems to several NATO nations. It is also active in the field of civil air traffic control based on civil identification processes. The interrogator system MSSR 2000 I, for example, is deployed on German naval vessels and by the naval forces of France, Norway and Finland. DE’s identification systems are used for air traffic control in such countries as Portugal, Bulgaria and the Philippines.

Source: EADS