Nations seek NATO-compatible ID systems: contractors expect several billion dollars in business opportunities during the next decade.

• Author: Tiron, Roxana

Several countries are gearing up to award muiltibillion-dollar contracts to upgrade their national combat identification systems and make them compatible with NATO standards.

Egypt, Greece, Sweden and Saudi Arabia are among those nations expected to acquire combat ID electronics, which are installed on weapon systems to help prevent fratricide.

The United Kingdom already has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in this technology. Two years ago, it starred a Successor Identification Friend or Foe program, or SIFF.

IFF systems, installed in weapons and surveillance systems, interrogate potential targets. The friendly platforms have transponders that, upon being interrogated, identify those platforms.

Companies such as Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems and Thales are competing for a piece of the pie in upcoming IFF programs. Industry sources said that the U.K. IFF program offered proof of the complexity and considerable costs associated with these technologies.

Egypt issued a request for proposals and companies had until the first of September to submit their plans, Raytheon's Bob Askin told National Defense. The competitors in this program-expected to be worth at least 500 million Euros--are Raytheon, BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman. Northrop officials declined to confirm the company's participation, citing competitive concerns.

The Egyptian government has been under pressure to get the IFF program under way. During Operation Desert Storm, in 1991, Egypt could not fly its F-16 and Mirage fighter jets in the U.S.-led coalition, because the aircraft did nor have NATO inreroperable combat ID systems.

"They did not fly a minute--300 airplanes sitting on the ground totally useless, because, if they ever flew, we would shoot them out of the sky," said Askin.

According to Pat McMahon, BAE Systems' vice president and general manager for 1FF and display systems, the company' combined interrogator transponder (CIT) is the preferred technology for the airborne interrogator in the Egyptian program.

The KIV-6 Cryptographic Computer is a component of the CIT Identification Friend or Foe (IFF). Mark (MK) XII AN/APX-1 11(V) and AN/APX-113 IFF, which is currently installed on the FIA-18, F-16 fighters and SH-60 helicopters.

Under the U.S. rules of engagement, positive identification of an airborne target is required before employing air-to-air weapons beyond visual range. The CIT/IFF with the KIV-6 computer, claim BAE officials, can identify an...