Identification Friend or Foe (IFF)

Airborne attacks on ground targets are generally carried out by aircraft operating at low altitude and high speeds, giving the defender little time to react. As aircraft begin to look more alike, less reliance can be placed on visual identification.

RSL's Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) systems are designed to overcome this identification problem. Raytheon is the world's leading supplier of IFF equipment and RSL has 60 years of experience in the supply of IFF for air, land and sea applications.

Recent major programmes include the supply of IFF for Eurofighter/Typhoon, Tornado, Hawk, Rapier Air Defence Weapon and ANZAC ships.

All products operate at IFF Mk XII standard with the family of next generation systems including civil Mode S and growth to a new secure mode.


CIRCE Secure Mode

For military applications, where NATO crypto is unavailable, Raytheon has produced a national crypto system. Each customer is supplied with a truly unique crypto operation providing an independent secure national IFF system.

SIFF (Successor Identification Friend or Foe)

RSL is prime contractor to the Ministry of Defence for the UK 's Successor Identification Friend or Foe (SIFF) programme valued at some £100 million.

SIFF is a multi-phase programme to modernise the MoD's land, sea and air platforms with advanced Mark XII/Mode S compatible IFF systems. SIFF will be used by all three Armed Forces and eventually fitted to over 1000 pieces of equipment across some 40 different types, including warships, submarines, helicopters, missile systems, fighter and transport aircraft.

All of the customer In-Service Dates (ISD's) have already been achieved on or ahead of time. These include transport aircraft, helicopters, Royal Navy ships, Tornado fast jets and the Ground-Based Air Defence System.

The upgrade for SIFF includes interrogators, transponders, associated cryptographic computers and control panels, as well as complete logistics support packages including test equipment.

RSL at Harlow, together with Raytheon's facility in Baltimore, Maryland, has surveyed and developed comprehensive integration solutions for UK platforms in close co-operation with their respective design authorities.

Raytheon's entire SIFF management team is located at Harlow to reduce programme risk and bring all the advantages of focused management and commercial control to an established IFF business.

In the 2004 National Audit Office (NAO) Major Projects Report, SIFF was cited as one of only two examples of successful MoD projects, having met its key cost and delivery targets.

Battlefield Target Identification Device

RSL was contracted by the U.K. Ministry of Defence to provide two Battlefield Target Identification Device (BTID) Transponders for fielding at the Coalition Combat Identification Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrator (ACTD) trials in the autumn of 2005, for which RSL also provided vehicle integration and associated technical support.

BTID is a cooperative system where transponder equipped friendly vehicles are queried by interrogator equipped combat vehicles as part of their target acquisition process to provide positive identification of friendly forces.

The ACTD trials were undertaken to demonstrate the military utility of cooperative combat identification system technologies. BTID employs millimetre wave technology and provides a force multiplier. It is a 'duty of care' device that increases combat effectiveness by minimising false targeting errors, thereby reducing fratricide or friendly fire combat losses. Additionally it provides a self-contained secure networking capability to support small unit blue force tracking applications providing soldiers with improved battlefield situational awareness.

BTID conforms to NATO STANAG 4579 ensuring interoperability among similarly equipped NATO and coalition forces during joint and combined operations.