The US Navy has awarded a contract to Tel-Instrument Electronics corporation to deliver its avionics test identification friend-or-foe (IFF) technologies.
Under the $2.35m contract, the company will supply 79 of its AN/APM-719 mode five identification friend-or-foe test sets and also 20 of its AN/APM-708 craft full-function test sets.
The IFF is the air traffic control (ATC) system used to identify and track military aircraft while the FF mode 5 is the latest variant of the system.
The ATC system includes an airborne transponder and a ground interrogator, and has the capability to measure the distance and heading of the aircraft. The transponder encodes identification and position information into the response.
Deliveries of the AN/APM-719 will start by the end of 2009 and are expected to be completed in the current fiscal year while the pilot production units of AN/APM-708 have been started and will be ready for the Navy Test Readiness Review in January 2010.
