M427

Reverse Mode 5 Responder

The M427 Reverse Mode 5 responder is designed to prevent air-to-ground fratricide based on Reverse Mode 5, where interrogations are directed to targets at a specified set of geographic coordinates or within some specified range of distance. Only transponders located within the area will reply.

In order to use airborne transponders in this way, it is necessary to exchange the conventional interrogate and reply frequencies between them. Thus the aircraft would interrogate the ground targets on the conventional transponder reply frequency, and the ground transponder would reply on the conventional interrogate frequency; the variant of transponder fitted to the ground platform is called Responder.

Both air and ground systems use omni antennae to transmit pseudo interrogations and receive pseudo replies. Therefore, no new antennas are required on the aircraft.

The modified airborne transponder operates as a standard MkXIIA IFF, since the workload associated with the added M5R function is extremely low; therefore it is possible to avoid an additional box on the aircraft.

Two main modes of operation are provided:
  • Don’t Shoot Me (Short-ID)
  • Situation Awareness (Full-ID)
For those platforms where the integration is particularly difficult, the M427 can be controlled from its Control Panel, which is a remote control and indication available on the M427 front panel.
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M427
  • Key Features
  • Technical Specifications

Short-ID

Using its IFF transponder, the aircraft broadcasts its intention (on 1090 MHz) to attack an area centered on a specific grid reference; the radius is related to the planned weapon danger zone. Friends in the impact area (equipped with Responders) answer (on 1030 MHz) with a “Don’t shoot!” message, named Short-ID.

The only information associated with replies is the crypto validation and only a single reply is needed for a “Friend in Area” system declaration. A burst of interrogations will be used, to improve identification reliability.

Full-ID

The air-surface Situational Awareness (SA) mode operates as follows. The airborne platform sends interrogations to all the ground targets in a specified Area of Interest, using a reverse Mode 5 pseudo interrogation (on 1090 MHz).

All friendly surface targets in the selected area respond (on 1030MHz) with ID (basically Unit Reference Number, URN), position, and validation using their Responder. The resulting information is used to update the local ground tactical picture held locally or distributed via Data Link to other users.

The aim of F-ID is to collect available data from all friends present in a designated area, then in this ‘area of interest,’ the first to reply is not important, as it is in the case of S-ID for attack purposes. Also, in this case, to improve data availability, a burst of interrogations will be used.

  • Operating Mode: Short-ID, Full-ID i.a.w STANAG4722
  • System Interface:
    • Ethernet - TCP/IP Protocol
    • Optional: RS422: Start/Stop
      Protocol (up to 115,2Kb/s)
  • Sensitivity: -78dBm 1090 MHz
  • Output Power: >50dBm 1030 MHz
  • Reliability: 10,000 h GM 25ºC
  • Maintainability: MTTR < 15m LRU level
  • Testability: 95% fault isolation catalogue
  • Environm. conditions: STANAG 4370
  • Operating temperature: -40ºC +71ºC, -54ºC after warm-up
  • E/M compatibility: MIL-STD-461E
  • Dimensions (mm) : 150 (W) × 50 (H) × 220 (D)
  • Weight: < 2 Kg
  • Consumption: < 15 W
  • Input power: 28 VDC i.a.w. MIL-STD 1275
  • Cooling: No cooling required
  • Mounting: Hard mounted

 

Remote Control Panel

  • Dimensions (mm): 120 (W) x 65 (H) x 90 (L)
  • Weight: < 0,45 kg
  • Consumption: < 0,5W
  • Environm. conditions: STANAG 4370

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