APPLICATION OF

SECONDARY
SURVEILLANCE
RADAR(SSR) IN
MILITARY
IDENTIFICATION-
FRIEND OR FOE(IFF)
TECHNOLOGY

PREPARED BY-
ADRIJA CHOWDHURY

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 INTRODUCTION

Surveillance systems provide breakthrough performance

in the Detection, Interrogation, Identification, Tracking &
Data Extraction of targets in severe environments
Aim on Civil and Military air traffic control, battle
management, efficient decision making in air defense
system & keeping friendly forces out of harms way
Modern Methods of surveillance-
IFF systems
TCAS
FLIR etc

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 SURVEILLANCE IN DEFENSE
SYSTEMS
SURVEILLANCE ~
A radar system used for locating the position of
both civilian as well military aircrafts & ships, or
ground vehicles & most commonly in air traffic
management
Used by ATC to indicate the position of aircraft while
flying or on airport surface
Makes use of radio waves
Also gives information like-speed, range, bearing,
altitude & direction of aircrafts
Most Important function- Identifies the friendly
aircrafts & ships and distinguishes them from the
hostile ones 3
 OBJECTIVES
OF SURVEILLANCE
For civil as well as air traffic control &
management safely directing traffic
For extracting various information regarding the
targets
For defense mechanism
Identifying the friendly forces out of many &
keeping them out of harms way
Thus reducing the risk of enemy attack

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 Secondary Surveillance
Radar (SSR)

Also known as INTERROGATOR

A radar system used in ATC that
relies on a piece of equipment that
is placed within the aircraft & is
known as a 'transponder
For IFF system it is basically
synchronized with the PSR on
ground station
Gives additional information unlike
PSR

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 IFF-A MODERN METHOD OF
SURVEILLANCE
IFF is IDENTIFICATION-FRIEND OR FOE
A system that distinguishes FRIENDS from FOES
Based on the application of Secondary Surveillance
Radar
Inception-1935, U.S. Initially was developed to identify
U.S aircrafts
Mainly works on these major modes of operation-
MODE 1
MODE 2
MODE 3/A
MODE 4
MODE C 6
MODE S newly developed
 HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF
IFF
The technology IFF was
developed during
WORLD WAR-II by
British and American
military
Sir ROBERT WATSON
WATT invented the first IFF
transponder and SSR in
1935
This technology was later
used by Civil Aviation in
1950s.
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 FEATURES OF IFF

Detection And Tracking

Identification
Interrogation
Data Extraction
Air Traffic Control And Management
Efficient decision making during battles and wars

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HOW AN IFF SYSTEM WORKS

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 WORKING PRINCIPLE OF IFF
SYSTEM
Ground based transmitter known as interrogator that
is the Secondary Surveillance radar synchronized
with primary radar, transmits a radio
signal(interrogating signal) to the aircrafts
transponder at 1030 Megahertz by selecting a
unique transponder code
Transponder receives the signal and decodes it
After decoding, the transponder replies back to the
interrogator for that particular transponder code
Now the interrogator will decode the reply and report
back to ATC and thus we will get the display 10
WORKING PRINCIPLE (Contd.)

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RADAR DISPLAY
What appear on radar
display?
Aircraft Identity.
Altitude
Speed
Direction
Example
MH092 FL280
585
Meaning: Flight
Malaysian 092 cruising
at 28000ft with speed of
585knots
 TRANSPONDER CODES (XPNDR CODES)

Transponder codes are four digit numbers transmitted by

the transponder in an aircraft in response to an
interrogation signal assisted by air traffic controllers in
traffic separation. A discrete transponder code (often
called a squawk code) is assigned by air traffic controllers
to uniquely identify an aircraft.
Squawk codes are four-digit octal numbers; the dials on a
transponder read from zero to seven, inclusive. Thus the
lowest possible squawk is 0000 and the highest is 7777.
Four octal digits can represent up to 4096 different codes,
which is why such transponders are often called "4096
code transponders (ROUTINE & EMERGENGY CODES)
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 MODES OF OPERATION OF IFF
SYSTEMS
Mode 1 is a non-secure method used to track aircrafts; codes
manually set by pilot but assigned by ATC(military only)
Mode 2 is for identification; identifies the tail no.(military only)
Mode 3/A is the standard system also used by civilian aircrafts
to relay their position to ground controllers throughout the
world for ATC. Used in conjunction with MODE C(military &
civilian)
Mode 4 is secure encrypted IFF(the only true method of
determining friend or foe); only military
Mode "C" is the altitude encoder(military & civilian)
Newly developed Mode S does selective interrogation; each aircraft
can be addressed using its unique 24 bit address(military & civilian)
but not implemented yet
Mode 5-advanced mode of Mode S under processing 14
CHARACTERISTICS OF IFF MODES

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 PROBLEMS WITH
IFF
FRUIT
GARBLE
FAILURE OF TRANSPONDER
WRONG ENCRYPTION KEYS
BATTLE DAMAGE

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 CONCLUSION
o IFF technology serves as one of the best methods
of surveillance
o Multipurpose fulfilment
o MODE S & MODE 5-GOOD FUTURE ASPECTS
Less power required as Transmitter is typically more
efficient
If the SSR interrogates selectively Mode S can reduce
power even more as it can replace both Mode 3/A &
Mode C as together both modes would consume a lot
of power

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END OF THE PRESENTATION
BUT NOT THE END OF THE
DEVELOPMENT
OF
IFF AND SSR

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THANK
YOU

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ANY QUESTIONS
?????

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 ACRONYMS
IFF~IDENTIFICATION-FRIEND OR FOE
TCAS~TRAFFIC COLLISION AVOIDANCE SYSTEM
FLIR~FORWARD LOOKING INFRARED RADAR
ATC~AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL
FAA~FEDERAL AVIATION AUTHORITY
SSR~SECONDARY SURVEILLANCE RADAR
PSR~PRIMARY SURVEILLANCE RADAR
FRUIT~FALSE REPLIES UNSYNCHRONISED WITH
INTERROGATOR TRANSMISSION or FALSE
REPLIES UNSYNCHRONISED IN TIME

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