Eurosatory 2018: French Army orders Hensoldt BTI1000I IFF testers.

HENSOLDT, the leading independent sensor solutions house, will deliver its test equipment used to ensure the correct performance of identification systems onboard aircraft and ships to the French Ministry for the Armed Forces, the company said at Eurosatory 2018.

 
 BTI1000I IFF tester
(Picture source Hensoldt)

The contract worth several million Euros covers the delivery of 130 BTI1000I IFF testers (IFF = Identification-Friend-or-Foe) compatible with the military and civilian Mark XIIAS standard which are essential to make sure that IFF systems are working correctly before a military aircraft or ship is going on a mission. IFF systems, so-called secondary surveillance radars (SSR), precisely identify ships and aircraft by automatically sending interrogation signals which are answered by so-called transponders on-board friendly aircraft or ships. Thus, IFF enables field commanders to quickly distinguish friendly from hostile forces and therefore avoid friendly fire.

HENSOLDT’s BTI1000I IFF testers have been qualified by DGA (the French Defence Procurement Agency) in 2017. End of 2017 the testers gave proof of their capabilities during the US Army’s “Bold Quest” interoperability exercises in Savannah/Georgia. They are under contract by several platform integrator companies and in service with the Armed Forces of Germany, Norway, Denmark and Australia.

HENSOLDT supplies customers all over the world with IFF equipment. Based on the experience of predecessor companies like Matra, Airbus and Siemens, the company is under contract to upgrade German, French, US and other armed forces’ platforms with IFF systems using the latest ‘Mode 5’ standard. It has already delivered IFF systems – including crypto devices - to ground and naval platforms of 42 NATO and NATO-allied nations. In France, the company’s equipment is deployed on the “Charles de Gaulle” aircraft carrier, the Rafale and Mirage 2000 combat aircraft, the NH90 helicopters and several air defence platforms. In Germany, the company has established the air traffic control/IFF network of the German Air Force. In total, HENSOLDT has about 450 IFF interrogator and transponder systems under contract for more than 80 platform types and provided crypto devices in more than 33 countries.