LIG Nex1, South Korea’s second-largest aerospace maker and defense company in terms of defense revenue, has sealed an agreement with the US defense system certification agency KBR to gain US Department of Defense certification for Korean military arms, so that they can be equipped with the latest “identification, friend or foe” technology.

IFF technology is designed to minimize the chances of “friendly fire” incidents, in which military forces misidentify a target and attack their own troops or those of an ally in the belief that they are firing on an enemy. 

LIG Nex1 CEO Kim Ji-chan (fifth from left) and Rob Hawkets (fourth from left), vice president of KBR Government Services Asia Pacific, pose at a signing ceremony during the industry exhibition DX-Korea 2018 at Kintex in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday. (LIG Nex1)

Under the agreement, clinched Thursday during DX-Korea 2018, a defense industry exhibition in Seongnam, south of Seoul, LIG Nex1 will receive technical assistance from KBR to ameliorate its IFF technology in the areas of aviation, local defense, regional defense, surveillance and reconnaissance, and warships. In a statement, LIG Nex1 cited KBR’s track record in AIMS authentication and the application of IFF Mode 5 as its reason for pursuing the partnership.

IFF Mode 5 is the latest standard for the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and AIMS certification is necessary to use IFF Mode 5. Currently, LIG Nex1’s arms, including the shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile KP-SAM Shin-Gung, feature IFF Mode 4. LIG Nex1 has been working to upgrade its IFF equipment since 2016.

The US Department of Defense has issued AIMS authentication for air traffic control radar beacon systems and IFF systems.

By Son Ji-hyoung 
(consnow@heraldcorp.com)