• The company will equip the ground based air defence system, tasked with responding to any airborne threat, with identification friend or foe (IFF) systems incorporating enhanced encryption in Mode 5.
  • The IFF is a secondary radar that interrogates aircraft and determines whether they are friendly or liable to pose a threat.
  • It is critical technology that enhances situational awareness, ensures positive identification of an air force’s own aircraft and prevents friendly fire.

Madrid. 26  September 2024. Indra has signed a framework agreement with the Spanish Ministry of Defence to endow the Spanish Army’s ground based air defence system, tasked with responding to any airborne threat, with state-of-the-art capabilities to identify whether an air platform is a friend or foe (IFF system), thus contributing to reinforcing the protection of the airspace, increasing the safety of allied aircraft and preventing friendly fire.

The project, awarded to Indra following an open bidding on the month of June with the industry’s main suppliers and recently signed, provides for the implementation of Mode 5/S IFF radar systems to facilitate enhanced positive identification of an air force’s own aircraft.

The IFF is a secondary radar which sends an encrypted interrogation that only platforms aware of the codes can decrypt and respond to confirm that it is friendly. 

Mode 5, deployed by NATO and its allies, has replaced the now obsolete mode 4 and is therefore vital for participation in joint missions.

This mode is more difficult for the adversary to intercept, due to the form of the emitted signal and its encryption, which is performed by the cryptographic equipment integrated into the interrogator, whose codes are changed on a regular basis. 

In addition to identifying whether the aircraft is a friend or enemy, the new mode 5 provides more information on the aircraft than traditional modes, enabling it not only to identify it accurately, but also to ascertain its position, identification number and callsign, among other data, through selective interrogations that avoid any unnecessary radio emissions and facilitate a stealthier and safer operation.

In the cases of high-mobility ground based air defence system and ones that require rapid deployment and redeployment capabilities, Indra will deliver a next-generation IFF model (I50D Interrogator) with a lightweight, compact design.

The company will integrate the new IFFs into the firing direction centers of the current light and medium-sized anti-aircraft artillery operations centers via their respective short and medium-range radars. It will also renew the intelligent terminals associated with the MISTRAL short-range missile launching positions while incorporating the new IFFs into the Skydor firing directions, the medium-range HAWK batteries and its operations center.

IFF radar systems constitute one of the solutions forming part of the air defence ground system portfolio that Indra has identified as key to its business within the Leading the Future strategic plan. Indra has implemented these systems on all kinds of air, land and naval platforms for armies around the world.