Re:Missiles Are Now the Biggest Killer of Airline Passengers
by sokoloff on Friday December 27, 2024 @10:14AM
(#42522711)
> by the time you receive an IFF query, you know you're about to be shot at
I don’t think that’s the most common case for an IFF query. AWACS oversight aircraft likely issue more IFF queries than fighter intercepts do. You still want to respond to a friendly AWACS inquiry, even though that aircraft is 100nm away and no direct/immediate threat to you.
Re:Missiles Are Now the Biggest Killer of Airline Passengers
by FuriouslyAdrift on Friday December 27, 2024 @11:00AM
(#42523236)
100nm (more or less) is the positive identification radar advisory zone for a carrier group airspace... (AKA REDCROWN)
Re:Missiles Are Now the Biggest Killer of Airline Passengers
by furyofantares on Friday December 27, 2024 @11:24AM
(#42523457)
Less than 100 nanometers?
It always gets me when someone abbreviates nautical miles in lowercase even though context is (almost) always clear it can't be nanometers.
Re:Missiles Are Now the Biggest Killer of Airline Passengers
by sokoloff on Friday December 27, 2024 @11:49AM
(#42523704)
An AWACS aircraft within 100 nanometers of you would indeed represent a direct and immediate threat. :)
TIL that nm isn’t actually accepted as an abbreviation for nautical miles. (It’s used so commonly in aviation that I assumed it was correct and it took me 3 or 4 searches to accept that this thing I knew was correct actually wasn’t. Thanks [seriously]!)
First, you only respond to correctly encrypted/signed requests. Everything else you ignore.
So, second, once you have your valid request, you respond to it, also in an encrypted fashion. IIRC F-35 can use their radars, with their bean-forming abilities, for stealthy comms, sending a very narrow beam of radio signals to the recipient.
And if this is fantasy, I suppose by the time you receive an IFF query, you know you're about to be shot at. So you might as well respond, sacrificing stealth. Hence why you want to really be sure you're really asked by your side, rather than receiving a spoof request.
Airlines just broadcast a ton of public information about themselves, so they don't really need an IFF system. They put their hands up and say "don't shoot, I'm a civilian!".