Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) & Secondary Surveillance Radar Explained | Fundamentals of EW

The US military uses IFF to tell friends apart from enemies, and civilian aviation uses SSR to keep track of planes in crowded airspace. But did you know these two seemingly different systems use the exact same technology?
In this video we'll go into how that tech works and how its used both in civil and military applications.
Intro 00:00
Bits and Pulses 04:48
Mode 3/A 07:00
Mode 4 10:50
Modes S and 5 13:07
Radar playlist: • Radar Explained
References:
Overview of SSR and IFF: ieee.li/pdf/viewgraphs/overvi...
DoD paper on Mode 5 IFF: www.dote.osd.mil/Portals/97/p...
Article on modern IFF systes: euro-sd.com/2022/01/articles/...
Image of GA Transponder:
By Meggar at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
Obligatory disclaimers:
The presence of DOD Visual Information in this video does not constitute endorsement by the DOD or any of its departments. Any views expressed by the presenter are those of the presenter and do not represent the views of the DOD or any of its components.

[@fisadev]

This channel is pure gold. Thanks a lot for the clear explanations :)

[@KristianDjukic]

indeed

[@fullyarmedbiker4721]

I worked on the E2-C aircraft in the 80's. I used to walk around on the flight deck of the USS Independence and USS Forrestal with a box called a Sniffer, to check that all of the planes Mode IV was working, and had the right code before leaving the deck.

[@johngreen4610]

Worked on this stuff back in the 60s. USAF Air Traffic Control Radar Maintenance. Remember a lot about the radar not so much the IFF.

[@andreyzhavoronkov6746]

Very insightful as always. I had no clue before about mode 5 and the fact that M4 is decommissioned. Thanks, Mike!

[@motionsic]

Excellent presentation! Clear and concise in teaching valuable knowledge for airspace participants. I appreciate it as a private pilot🙂

[@TheOpsCenterByMikeSolyom]

Awesome. I'm glad to see there are like minded people out there.

[@cl5258]

Dude. Headed to OTS soon and UPT/ENJJPT soon after. These videos are absolutely phenomenal. Thank you sir

[@S3NTRY]

Another great one! Thanks, Mike

[@flyus747]

i really appreciate the in depth information this channel provides especially the topics behind the usual

[@yurgon15723]

Excellent explanation as always, thank you so much for these videos!

[@pyr0duck676]

Thank you for these videos! They are invaluable!

[@PFpants]

These vids are so good. Thanks for making them

[@Qnnrad]

Thanks so much! Great video, happy to have found your channel!

[@FGCH03]

As always excellent video.

[@BalticSeal]

Great video!

[@kasmiller9289]

Another great video.

[@aviationrambler]

I wish I had this video a few months ago when I was reading up on this stuff.

[@marshalllapenta7656]

Question? Are there any hardware differences between friendly radar and foe radar? Do they ever change the mega hertz rating?

[@kerbalairforce8802]

15 year Avionics mechanic here: Every time our EW systems detect a new radar, we investigate and log it with whatever machine it's on. A terrain/weather radar on a C-130 is going to be tuned to be good at that, and an air track radar on an F-16 is going to be tuned to be good at that job. Now, there are EW decoys that intentionally pretend to be another aircraft, and that complicates things, but we can watch a "C-130" going mach 1, and figure out that it's not a "C-130". I hope that helps!

[@yappydawg8985]

Those mysterious black boxes in the cockpit make a whole lot more sense now. Would an IFF reply or lack of reply constitute sufficient evidence for a positive friendly or hostile identification?

[@TheOpsCenterByMikeSolyom]

The answer to your question is not a short one. As it so happens it's also the topic of the next video. In that video we'll go down the checklist describing how distant aircraft are IDed.

[@kerbalairforce8802]

IFF should be called "Friendly or Unknown" because it can't tell if you are an enemy by itself.

[@rakamora2266]

PLease som Falcon BMS content. Really liking the content.

[@Sciencebook12]

How you learn this animation plz tell me❤

[@petersalls4083]

Do they use this system on drones? Like the Iranian drone they thought was us? If so, there's no way they didn't know that wasn't our drone.

[@Motorman2112]

Wouldn't Mode 4 have been very susceptible to brute-force attacks, where a computer could simply try every one of the 4096 possible codes?

[@rasherbilbo452]

Interrogation code mode 4 is layered under encryption, you'd need to crack that also, so no.