IFF Mark II

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The IFF Mark II antenna on this Spitfire can just be made out, stretching across the rear fuselage from the
roundel to the tip of the horizontal stabiliser.

IFF Mark II was the first operational identification friend or foe system. It was developed by
the Royal Air Force just before the start of World War II. After a short run of prototype Mark Is, used
experimentally in 1939, the Mark II began widespread deployment at the end of the Battle of
Britain in late 1940. It remained in use until 1943, when it began to be replaced by the
standardised IFF Mark III, which was used by all Allied aircraft until long after the war ended.
The Mark I was a simple system that amplified the signals of the British Chain Home radar systems,
causing the aircraft's "blip" to extend on the radar display, identifying the aircraft as friendly. Mark I
had the problem that the gain had to be adjusted in flight to keep it working; in the field, it was
correct only half the time. Another problem was that it was sensitive to only one frequency and had
to be manually tuned to different radar stations. In 1939, Chain Home was the only radar of interest
and operated on a limited set of frequencies but new radars were already entering service and the
number of frequencies was beginning to multiply.
Mark II addressed both these problems. An automatic gain control eliminated the need to adjust the
gain, making it much more likely to be working properly when interrogated. To work with many types
of radar, a complex system of motorised gears and cams constantly shifted the frequency through
three wide bands, scanning each every few seconds. These changes automated the operation of the
device and made it truly useful for the first time; previously, operators could not be sure if a blip was
an enemy aircraft or a friendly one with a maladjusted IFF. Originally ordered in 1939, installation
was delayed during the Battle of Britain and the system became widely used from the end of 1940.
Although the Mark II's selection of frequencies covered the early war period, by 1942 so many
radars were in use that a series of sub-versions had been introduced to cover particular
combinations of radars. The introduction of new radars based on the cavity magnetron required
different frequencies to which the system was not easily adapted. This led to the introduction of the
Mark III, which operated on a single frequency that could be used with any radar; it also eliminated
the complex gear and cam system. Mark III began entering service in 1943 and quickly replaced the
Mark II.

Contents
 1History
o 1.1Early efforts
o 1.2Mark I
o 1.3Mark II
o 1.4Mark III
 2Versions
 3Notes
 4References
o 4.1Citations
o 4.2Bibliography
 5Further reading
 6External links

History[edit]
Early efforts[edit]
Before Chain Home (CH) systems began deployment, Robert Watt had considered the problem of
identifying friendly aircraft on a radar display. He filed initial patents on such systems in 1935 and
1936.[1][2][3]
In 1938, researchers at the Bawdsey Manor radar research establishment began working with the
first of Watt's concepts. This was a simple "reflector" system consisting of a set of dipole
antennas that were tuned to resonate at the frequency of the CH radars. When a pulse from the
radar hit them, they would resonate for a short period and cause an additional signal to be received
by the station. The antennas were connected to a motorised switch that periodically shorted the
antenna out and cancelled the broadcast, causing the signal to turn on and off. On the CH display,
this caused the "blip" to periodically lengthen and contract. The system proved highly unreliable; it
worked only when the aircraft was at certain locations and flying in certain directions.[1]
It was always suspected that this system would be of little use in practice. When that turned out to
be the case, the Royal Air Force (RAF) introduced a different system that consisted of a set of
tracking stations using HF/DF radio direction finders. The standard aircraft radios were modified to
send out a 1 kHz tone for 14 seconds every minute, allowing the tracking stations ample time to
measure the aircraft's bearing. Several such stations were assigned to each sector of the air defence
system and sent their measurements to a plotting station at sector headquarters. There they
used triangulation to determine the aircraft's location.[4]
Known as "pip-squeak", the system worked but was very labour-intensive, requiring operators at
several stations and at plotting boards in sector HQs.[4] More operators were needed to merge the
information from the pip-squeak system with that from the radar systems to provide one view of the
airspace. It also meant the pilots were constantly interrupted when talking to their ground controllers.
A system that worked directly with the radar was desired.[5]
Mark I[edit]
Seeking a system that would be as simple as possible, the Bawdsey researchers began work with
a regenerative receiver. The idea behind regeneration is to amplify the radio signal and send it into
an LC circuit, or "tank", that resonates at a selected frequency. A small part of the tank's output is
sent back into the amplifier's input, causing feedback which greatly amplifies the signal. As long as
the input signal is relatively constant, like Morse code signals, a single vacuum tube can provide
significant amplification.[6]
One problem with regeneration is that if the feedback is too strong, the signal will grow to the point
where it begins to broadcast back out of the antenna and cause interference on other receivers.[6] In
the case of the IFF system, this is precisely what was desired. When the radar signal was received,
and the gain was properly adjusted, the signal grew until it turned the system from a receiver to a
broadcaster. The signal levels were still small, but the receivers in the radar systems were extremely
sensitive and the signal from the transceiver was larger than what would normally be received from
the reflection of the original radar pulse alone.[7]
This extra signal would cause the aircraft's blip on the radar screen to suddenly grow to be much
larger. Since it might be difficult to distinguish the resulting larger signal from IFF from the return of a
larger aircraft or formation without IFF, the circuit was connected to a motorised switch that rapidly
disconnected and reconnected the receiver, causing the blip to oscillate on the radar display.[7] A
switch on the cockpit control panel allowed the pattern to be controlled; one setting sent back
15 microsecond (μs) pulses, the second setting sent 40 μs pulses and the final setting switched
between the two with every received pulse.[8]
There were two major disadvantages of the design. One was that the pilot had to carefully set the
feedback control; if it was too low the system would not create an output signal and nothing would be
received by the radar station, and if it was too high, the circuit would amplify its own electronic noise
and give off random signals known as "squitter" across a wide range of frequencies.[9] This caused
significant interference over a large area and was a major problem for radar operators.[10] It was too
easy to forget to adjust the gain during flight, especially in single-seat fighters, and it was estimated
a usable signal was returned only about 50 per cent of the time.[7]
The other problem was that the CH stations operated on a small but distinct set of frequencies, and
the system worked on only a single frequency at a time. An aircraft on a typical mission profile might
be visible only to a single CH station, or perhaps two or three over their operational area. To address
this, the cockpit panel had a card with the frequencies of local CH stations on it, which the pilot had
to tune as they moved about. Pilots often forgot to do this, and if they were lost or off-course, they
would not know which frequency to tune to, or the nearest station might not be on the card at all.[7]
The Mark I was used only experimentally. Thirty sets were hand-made at AMES and an order for
1,000 was placed with Ferranti in September 1939.[8]
Mark II[edit]

The IFF antenna can be seen on the left of this photo, meeting the fuselage in the RAF roundel. The lengthy
antennas, which had to be placed on both sides of the fuselage, slowed the Spitfire by about 2 miles per hour
(3.2 km/h). Rock of Gibraltar in background.

Beyond the operational problems with the Mark I, a more serious issue was the growing number of
new radar systems being deployed. Even as the Mark I was being tested, the RAF, Royal
Navy and British Army were introducing new systems, spanning a wide range of frequencies from
the RAF's 200 MHz systems used on night fighters and Chain Home Low to the Army's 75 MHz gun-
laying radars and on to the CH at 20 to 30 MHz. Attempting to manually tune among these would be
impractical and impossible if the aircraft were visible to more than one radar, which was increasingly
the case.[11]
A solution was already under development in early 1939, similar to the Mark I but employing tuned
circuits sensitive to many radar sets. It used a "complicated system of cams and cogs and Geneva
mechanisms" to switch among the bands by connecting to oscillators covering a band and then used
a motorised tuning capacitor to sweep through the frequency range within that band.[1][a] To ensure
the signal was the right strength and did not cause squitter, an automatic gain control was added.
These changes eliminated the need for tuning or gain adjustments in flight, greatly improving the
chance it would respond correctly to a radar. Only periodic adjustments on the ground were needed
to keep it working properly.[11]
An order for 1,000 sets was sent to Ferranti in October 1939 and they had completed the first 100
sets by November. The rapid expansion of the RAF precluded a significant proportion of its force
being equipped by the time of the Battle of Britain in mid-1940. In any case, the action took place
mostly over southern England, where IFF would not be very useful as the CH stations were
positioned along the coast and could see the fighters only if they were out over the English Channel.
There was no pressing need to install the systems and pip-squeak continued in use during the
battle.[7]
The lack of IFF led to problems including friendly fire; the Battle of Barking Creek in September 1939
would not have occurred if IFF had been installed. It also meant that enemy aircraft could not be
identified if they were close to known RAF aircraft. In July 1940, the Germans began to take
advantage of this by inserting their bombers into formations of RAF bombers returning from night
missions over Europe. To the ground operators these appeared to be more RAF aircraft and once
they crossed the coast there was no way to track them. Even if one of the rare Mark I sets was
available, the unreliability of their signals made it difficult for controllers to trust it.[7]
As the Battle of Britain ended, Mark II was rapidly installed in RAF aircraft. Its installation on
the Supermarine Spitfire required two wire antennas on the tail that slowed the top speed by 2 miles
per hour (3.2 km/h) and added 40 pounds (18 kg) of weight. Pip-squeak was still used for areas over
land where CH did not cover, as well as an emergency guidance system.[7] Mark II also found a use
on Royal Navy ships, where it was produced as the Type 252 so that ships could identify each other
by radar.[13]
A Mark II set was taken to the US as part of the Tizard Mission in November 1940. US researchers
were already working on their own IFF system of some complexity. They realised the importance of
using a common IFF system and in early 1941 they decided to install Mark II in their own
aircraft.[13] Production was taken up by Philco with an order for 18,000 sets as the SCR-535 in July
1942. The system was never entirely reliable.[11]
Mark III[edit]
Main article: IFF Mark III
The profusion of radars that led to the Mark II continued and by 1942 there were almost a dozen
sub-types of the Mark II covering sets of frequencies. The cavity magnetron had matured and a new
generation of radars operating in the microwave region was about to enter service, using
frequencies on which the IFF receivers could not operate.[14]
In 1940, English engineer Freddie Williams had considered this problem and suggested that all IFF
operations move to one frequency. Instead of responding on the radar's frequency and thus mixing
with their signal in the receiver, a separate unit would transmit "interrogation" pulses in synchronicity
with the radar's pulses and the received signals would be amplified independently and then mixed
with the radar's signals on the display. This greatly simplified the airborne equipment because it
operated on one frequency, eliminating the complex multi-band system. The only disadvantage was
that a second transmitter was needed at radar stations.[1]
Production of the IFF Mark III began at Ferranti and was quickly taken up in the US by Hazeltine.[15] It
remained the Allies' primary IFF system for the rest of the war; the 176 MHz common frequency was
used for many years after.[14]