German sensor solutions specialist Hensoldt has secured a contract to provide its identification-friend-or-foe (IFF) products to the Norwegian Armed Forces.
Under the contract, the company will supply its monopulse secondary surveillance radar (MSSR) 2000 ID secondary radars and LTR400 DNG lightweight transponders.
Additionally, the contract includes cryptographic and test equipment along with other related services.
The contract has been awarded by the Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency (NDMA). It has an estimated value of €15m ($15.16m).
The Mode 5-capable latest-technology IFF products enhance the ability of the armed forces to distinguish between friendly and hostile forces.
The IFF systems are secondary surveillance radars (SSR) used for precisely identifying aircraft by sending interrogation signals automatically.
These signals are then answered by transponders equipped on the friendly aircraft, further allowing the field commanders to rapidly differentiate friendly forces from the hostile ones.
It also helps in avoiding various friendly fire incidents.
The new Mode 5 technology employs sophisticated encryption approaches to avoid hostile signal manipulation to ensure that the entire identification process is secure and reliable.
Hensoldt has delivered IFF systems and crypto devices for the ground and naval applications of various Nato nations.
The company is under contract to upgrade IFF systems of the Armed Forces of French, German and the UK to Mode 5 standards.
Last year, the French Navy selected Hensoldt to equip radar system onto the Patrouilleur d’Outre-Mer (POM) vessels.
In 2019, the company was also selected by the German BAAINBw to provide naval radar system for the German Navy’s K130 corvettes.
Furthermore, Hensoldt is working to introduce this Mode 5 IFF technology in all the western armies, as a precondition of joint operations of the US/Nato and allied nation’s forces.
