In partnership with Hitachi Kokusai, Raytheon Company is leading Japan’s P-1 maritime surveillance aircraft modernization project.
The upgrade features Raytheon’s Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) transponders containing modern technologies, which include a new waveform that identifies and tracks military aircraft.
“The Japanese Navy will have an increasingly secure and interoperable next generation IFF waveform that does not interfere with other flight-tracking systems,” said Scott Whatmough, vice president of Raytheon’s Space and Airborne Systems’ Integrated Communication Systems.
A total of 70 planes will be upgraded with the new transponders during the next several years and Raytheon anticipates additional Asia-Pacific regional modernization opportunities.
In advance of the 2020 phase out of the legacy identification system, NATO and other countries are gradually adopting the Mode 5 waveform due to its higher data security protection.
Military IFF systems provide time-critical positive identification of friendly forces. The process is initiated automatically by a ground or airborne interrogator that transmits a secure message. The transponder then receives the interrogation and generates a secure response.
[mappress] Press Release, July 14, 2014; Image: Wikimedia