| Combined ir-rf combat identification friend-or-foe (iff) system for the dismounted soldier -> Monitor Keywords |
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Combined ir-rf combat identification friend-or-foe (iff) system for the dismounted soldierCombined ir-rf combat identification friend-or-foe (iff) system for the dismounted soldier description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20090045996, Combined ir-rf combat identification friend-or-foe (iff) system for the dismounted soldier. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
The present invention is the continuation of the U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/685,682 filed Mar. 13, 2007 by the authors of the present invention. FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThis invention relates generally to combat identification systems for the dismounted soldier and more particularly to a secure covert identification as friend or foe (IFF) system for interrogating a dismounted soldier with a coded infrared (IR) and radio (RF) signals, which are received and encoded by the target that sends combined response signal to prevent a friendly fire. The Dismounted Armed Forces have an interest in the remote identification of a person as friend or foe, particularly to prevent friendly fire in armed conflicts. Identification as friend or foe (IFF) systems are well-known for decades for military aircraft. Such systems are based on RF transmission and very useful for preventing action against friendly aircrafts. The military platform commanders target friend-or-foe identification presents a difficult decision for a military platform commander, who must decide whether to engage a detected target while avoiding accidental fratricide. This problem is even more difficult for the dismounted soldier who may be moving covertly through an unknown combat zone at night with a limited visibility. U.S. Pat. No. 4,851,849 issued to Otto Albersdoerfer describes a typical active IFF RF technique for a military vehicle, which is equipped with a RF transponder that emits a coded return signal when an interrogating radar pulse is detected by its receiver. U.S. Pat. No. 5,686,722 issued to Dobois et al. describes an active optical IFF technique for vehicles uses a selective wavelength optical coding system with tunable optical beacons mounted on each vehicle. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,226 issued to Gerber describes an active combat IFF system for a dismounted soldier that includes a weapon-mounted laser transmitter for interrogating suspected targets and a harness including means for receiving the interrogatory signal and means for responding with an encoded radio, acoustic or optical signal. Therefore, all mentioned and similar IFF systems utilize all-optical, all-radio or combined solutions, where the combined ones use an optical interrogating signal and RF response signal. All these systems have obvious disadvantages that could be critical in battlefield conditions. An optical interrogator has a sharp beam providing secure covert identification, but can reach the target only when the line laser transmitter—optical detector mounted on the friendly target is not shaded by any objects, such as leafs, woods, walls, etc. Unlike optical signal, RF one passes through the objects, which are not transparent for optical signals, but RF interrogator has very wide diagram because it has thousands times longer wavelength than optical signal. Therefore, the RF antenna with 30-mm aperture has the transmitting/receiving diagram of 37 arc degrees at 8-mm RF wavelength (Ka band). Such wide diagram does not allow recognizing each individual soldier; and the response signal comes from such large area too. The attempts to make a combined system utilizing optical interrogator and RF response unit cannot provide solution because such system inherits the disadvantages of optical and RF systems. Here, optical signal can be shaded by some not-transparent objects and RF response can be received from a number of response units simultaneously. There are two distinctive situations on a battlefield:
Sightline is not shaded, so all-optical IFF system works.
Sightline is obstructed, or somebody, probably enemy soldiers are hiding in trees, behind a fence, inside a building, etc. In this case all-optical IFF system is useless. RF system works and can provide general warning, if some friendly soldiers are there.
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