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RF Tags, developed
by General Atomics, under a U.S. Army CERDEC I2WD program will
provide reliable combat identification (CID) of friendly forces,
through when viewed by imaging radar sensors (SAR).
The Athena RF Tag system uses coherent gain block RF tag architecture,
developed by Sandia National laboratory and demonstrated in
field tests with a wide range of surveillance and fire control
radars. The system operates on the same channels used by the
radars, transmitting low-power tag data "buried" in
the radar clutter, to eliminate detection and location by enemy
eavesdropping.
The tag is detected by the radar system, and identifies the
platform when seen on the radar screen of the surveillance or
attack aircraft with zero latency. Current RF tags use analog
processing, but future versions could utilize digital RF memory
(DRFM) for more flexible performance. These tags have already
been tested with Lynx SAR radars and Joint STARS platforms,
as well as F-15E and F-16s radars. The system will also be compatible
with earlier models of F-16s, AV-8B, F/A-18 Hornets and Predator
UAVs.
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