[Milsurplus] Sixty year old IFF gear security lapse

William Donzelli aw288 at osfn.org
Sun Jul 18 11:17:57 EDT 2004


> It's well known that the ABK/ABF/SCR-595/SCR-695 IFF transponders were
> marked on their nomenclature tags and referred in their operating manuals as
> a "RADIO RECEIVER" rather than the technically correct "RADIO
> RECEIVER-TRANSMITTER."  Reportedly this was to mislead the enemy in the
> event of equipment capture.

I always thought the spoofind was a dumb idea - the military, as you
pointed out, did not go all the way. Just the fact of having the alpha
characters in the type number was a huge red flag.

I have never found an official explanation of the alpha characters in Navy
type numbers, but they are part of the original 1933 plan (predates radar 
and IFF).

William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org



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