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    1. Commercial Aerospace

    Lightweight Cassidian transponder is certified for military and civil applications

    Dec. 10, 2010
    LEIDEN, Germany, 10 Dec. 2010. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has certified Cassidian's newly developed LTR 400 family of transponders, to the latest standards. This includes both civil as well as military applications for the equipment. The very low weight equipment is suitable for the identification of military aircraft as well as for use in civil air traffic control.
    Pennwell web 120 77
    Pennwell web 120 77
    Posted by John McHaleLEIDEN, Germany, 10 Dec. 2010. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has certified Cassidian's newly developed LTR 400 family of transponders, to the latest standards. This includes both civil as well as military applications for the equipment. The very low weight equipment is suitable for the identification of military aircraft as well as for use in civil air traffic control.At 2.8 kilograms, the LTR 400 is currently the smallest and lightest transponder worldwide, which can be used without any restrictions for both civilian air traffic control and military applications to identify friendly units. This unit operates to the latest civilian air traffic control standard, Mode S Enhanced Surveillance. Together with the encryption and decryption computers from Cassidian, it can also be used in all currently widespread military modes. Due to its low weight, the LTR 400-A is particularly suitable for use on board helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles. This equipment has already been ordered to equip Eurocopter's EC 635 helicopter.Transponders are a crucial element to ensure safety in air traffic. As part of air traffic control, interrogators -- which are also called secondary radars -- emit signals to request flight data from individual aircraft, e.g. on their origin, course or speed. These requests are then automatically answered by transponders located on board the approaching aircraft, so that the position of each individual aircraft can always be reliably identified. Military aircraft also respond to these non-military requests. They even transmit additional data in an encrypted mode, allowing all aircraft to be unmistakably identified, e.g. during military operations, thus preventing inadvertent friendly attacks. For this reason, military aircraft require transponders with both civil and military functions. "This approval to an especially standardized procedure improves access to the worldwide market for our identification systems. We are thus helping to optimize safety in civil and military air traffic," says Bernd Wenzler, chief executive officer of Cassidian Electronics. "It saves platform manufacturers the costs and risks of specific approvals for different types of aircraft."

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