Cassidian, the defense division of EADS, has implemented a new capability of battlefield identification which allows combat aircraft and helicopters to reliably identify friendly forces in a pre-defined area before the use of weapons and thus avoiding casualties from friendly fire.

As reported by the company during the DSEI exhibition in London, Cassidian has successfully tested the enhancement of equipment used in military missions to distinguish friendly forces from hostile, the so-called Identification Friend-or-Foe (IFF).

This enhancement, called Reverse IFF (RIFF), allows aircraft to locate friendly forces in a pre-defined ground area by emitting interrogation signals. Previously, aircraft only responded to enquiries sent from ground-based interrogators but had no technical means themselves to identify ground forces.

“Our Reverse IFF solution is based on the latest NATO IFF standard, Mode 5, which cannot be intercepted by hostile forces due to our sophisticated encryption techniques linked to it,” said Elmar Compans, Head of Cassidian Sensors & Electronic Warfare.

Mode 5 RIFF enables aircraft and helicopters to use Cassidian transponders for air-ground interrogations in addition to their current function responding to interrogations from ground stations. This way, airborne platforms receive a valuable new capability without substantial modifications in aircraft equipment.