Combat identification system

and

have been awarded a contract by the

to provide combat identification solutions for ground-combat and combat-support vehicles to minimise the risk of fratricide.

Under a $3.3m (£2.3m) contract from the US Army Communications and Electronics Life Cycle Management Center, the companies will study how millimeter-wave combat identification systems can address issues related to affordability, information security, and platform integration.

The contract was awarded as part of the Joint Cooperative Target Identification-Ground programme, an effort to develop a low-cost target identification capability for the US Army and Marine Corps.

Paul Markwardt, vice-president of identification and surveillance for BAE Systems in Greenlawn, New York, said: 'BAE Systems and Thales are working together to develop a systems approach that combines Thales’s expertise in combat identification equipment and BAE Systems’ expertise in platform integration and network-centric combat identification capabilities.'

The contract covers the programme’s risk-reduction phase, focusing on ground-to-ground combat identification between military platforms.