South Korea and the U.S. to Face Difficulties Sharing Friend-or-Foe Identification Information Starting Next Year

South Korea-US Combined Exercises

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu Reporter] From next year, it is expected that the South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises will inevitably face disruptions. This is because the versions of the Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) equipment used by the weapon systems of South Korea and the U.S. do not match, making it difficult to share information that distinguishes friend from foe.

According to the military on the 31st, the U.S. plans to replace the IFF equipment of all weapon systems from Mode-4 to Mode-5 starting at the end of this year. Mode-4 is vulnerable to security issues and jamming countermeasures that interfere with the performance of electronic devices. The U.S. notified the South Korean military of the Mode-5 transition policy 10 years ago in 2010 through the South Korea-U.S. Command and Control Interoperability Committee. If the IFF equipment modes do not match, information sharing between South Korea and the U.S. becomes virtually impossible.

However, the Joint Chiefs of Staff overlooked this issue until the Board of Audit and Inspection pointed it out in 2014, after which they pushed for performance upgrades and began a feasibility study in 2017. When the IFF equipment procurement was delayed, the Joint Chiefs requested the U.S. to postpone the Mode-5 transition schedule in 2015, but this request was also rejected.

On the 30th (local time), the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) under the U.S. Department of Defense announced that the State Department approved the sale of Mode-5 IFF devices to be installed on South Korea’s KF-16 fighter jets and others. Accordingly, South Korea is expected to be able to purchase the latest Mode-5 IFF devices and real-time tactical data network Link 16 (TDL). The total sale amount is $194 million (approximately 237.4 billion KRW).

However, the installation of Mode-5 on South Korean military weapon systems will not be possible until at least after 2022. As a result, even if South Korea and the U.S. conduct joint exercises from next year, it will be difficult to share even the information that distinguishes friend from foe.

There are 101 weapon systems in the South Korean military that need to be equipped with Mode-5 IFF devices. Among them, 73 systems including intelligence ships, which are key intelligence assets against North Korea, as well as air, amphibious, airborne, and defense forces, cannot be equipped with Mode-5, inevitably blocking information sharing between South Korea and the U.S.

A military official said, "Mode-5 is one of several devices used for friend-or-foe identification," and added, "We are devising measures to minimize the gap in IFF equipment."