F-16s get new friend-or-foe system cleared for service

BAE Systems’ new identification friend or foe system for the F-16 has been certified by the U.S. Department of War, clearing it for use on U.S. Air Force fighters, the company said Sept. 29.

The AN/APX-127(V)1 Combined Interrogator Transponder received AIMS certification, the approval that shows an identification system meets U.S. and NATO standards and can work with allied equipment. BAE Systems said it expects to start delivering the first production lot of 90 units this year. The company did not say which F-16 units will receive them first, who ordered the first lot or how much it is worth.

An identification friend or foe system, known as IFF, lets an aircraft send a coded radio question to another aircraft and receive a coded answer, so a pilot or air defense operator can tell whether it is friendly before deciding whether to fire. The new unit combines the interrogator, which asks the question, and the transponder, which answers it, in one box sized for fighter jets.

The system is certified for Mark XIIB IFF with Mode 5, the encrypted military mode used by the United States and NATO, and Mode S, which is used in civilian air traffic control. BAE Systems said it adds extra receive channels so the aircraft can passively pick up other aircraft’s Mode 5 Level 2 signals, which carry position data, and ADS-B broadcasts, the location signals most civilian aircraft send out. That lets a pilot build a picture of nearby traffic without sending out interrogations of their own.

The unit meets the latest cryptography and cybersecurity requirements, and its open architecture allows new features to be added through software instead of hardware changes, the company said. It fits in the same space as three older BAE combined interrogator transponders, the AN/APX-113, AN/APX-125 and AN/APX-126, which are used on several U.S. and international aircraft, so it can be swapped in without redesigning the aircraft.

“This solution provides added security and real-time information pilots need in a variety of threat environments,” said Seth Guanu, Combat Identification Products program area director at BAE Systems.

BAE Systems says it has delivered more than 1,500 interrogators, 6,000 combined interrogator transponders and 16,000 transponders over more than 80 years. The new system is built at the company’s sites in Greenlawn, New York, and Austin, Texas.