The contract awarded totals almost 12 million euro and has an execution period of 24 months.

This system, which in Spanish will be developed under the AMIGOS programme, enables a friendly target to be identified in real time with a probability of success of over 98% and a range on a clear day of over six kilometres.

The Ministry of Defence has awarded Indra the contract, totalling approximately 12 million euro, to develop the friend or foe identification system for the Spanish Army. Under this contract the company will develop an automatic identification system that will enable the army to avoid loss of means and personnel in battle under its own fire. This system is being developed under a common standard ratified by NATO, and in Spain the programme is called AMIGOS (Advanced Military Identification for Ground Operational System).

Indra has already successfully concluded the first stage of the AMIGOS programme, which comprised a viability study to analyse the requirements and performance demanded of the system, together with the national development capacity. The development phase is now under way.

The system will enable allied troops to determine in real time whether a target is friendly or otherwise. It employs technology that enables correct identification with a probability of over 98% and which works within a maximum range of six kilometres on a clear day and under direct viewing. Furthermore, this system uses encryption and encoding techniques for sending data and information, which makes it especially reliable against detection, exploitation or interference by the enemy.

The BTID (Battlefield Target Identification Device) system operates through a platform equipped with an interrogation system, which when it detects of a possible target, sends the latter a high frequency, radio-electric signal with coded and encrypted data. The interrogated platform has a response system that, if a friend, will detect the interrogation and will send back a radio-electric signal with other data which will also be coded and encrypted. The interrogator receives the reply, decodes it and declares the target as a friend. If the interrogated platform does not possess the BTID system or does not have the same cryptographic codes, it will be unable to detect the interrogation and the target will declare the target as unknown. The entire identification process is undertaken in a timeframe of less than one second.

Indra began identification systems activities over ten years ago and is today considered one of the world’s leading companies in this field.

Indra
25.05.2006