Non-Cooperative Combat Identification

There exists a need for an effective Identification of Friend or Foe (IFF) as part of the target acquisition function in air and ground systems. The most important constraints applied to the real time IFF system include low probability of intercept, fail-safe, safe-guarded, and almost non-cooperative. The concepts of a number of proposed new IFF techniques are described. These techniques are based on the three types of sensors: FLIR, radar, and ladar. Among the three, the approaches which appear the most practical and require simple implementation are ladar-based. Several novel processing devices that are key to the IFF sensors are discussed.