Air Force asks Telephonics to provide identification friend-or-foe (IFF) avionics for Saudi AWACS planes
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. – Military avionics experts at Telephonics Corp. in Farmingdale, N.Y., will build AN/UPX-40 next-generation identification friend or foe interrogators for Saudi Arabian E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft under terms of a $12.6 million foreign military sales contract announced Thursday.
Officials of the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., are asking Telephonics to provide interrogator shipsets and installation for the Royal Saudi Air Force's fleet of five E-3 AWACS aircraft. AWACS is based on the Boeing four-engine 707 single-aisle passenger jet airframe.
The AN/UPX-40 IFF avionics enables aircraft to identify and position aircraft or ships as friendly or unknown, as well as determine their bearing and range. In addition to Saudi Arabia, Telephonics provides IFF systems for AWACS operated by the U.S., United Kingdom, NATO, and France.
The Telephonics IFF and secondary surveillance radar systems help military and civil air traffic controllers direct traffic and protect friendly forces. In addition to AWACS aircraft worldwide, the company's IFF systems are deployed at airports, on aircraft carriers, on surface vessels, and aboard maritime patrol fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.
Related: Boeing to upgrade computers, IFF, navigation, and communications aboard Saudi AWACS planes
The Telephonics AN/UPX-40 IFF avionics complies with Mark XIIA STANAG 4193, DOD AIMS 97-1000, DOD AIMS 03-1000 standards; performs Eurocontrol and homeland defense Mode S; has a 2,000-target capacity; incorporates advanced code correction algorithms, and has an open-systems architecture with plug-and-play upgrades to Mode S and Mark XIIA avionics.
The system has a 99.9 percent probability of detection; has 0.04 percent false target reports; code availability of 99.5 percent and code accuracy of 99.9 percent. It also offers jam resistance in electronic warfare (EW) scenarios.
For more information contact Telephonics online at www.telephonics.com, or the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center-Hanscom Air Force Base at www.hanscom.af.mil.
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John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
