Polish aircraft need NATO codes to escape being shot down by their own side

Due to government negligence in the event of an war or any NATO-led armed action Polish fighter planes and helicopters could be shot down by friendly fire. This is because Polish military aircraft still lack security codes which allow them to be identify as allies. Poland began installing NATO cryptographic systems in 2000 and only next year is expected to receive the key elements which are only known to the U.S. National Security Agency, and are used by all NATO forces. Although the planes are technically prepared for such systems they lack the actual codes, which assure the reliability of the information. "Our identification system (IFF) which we began creating in the early nineties is today ready to have the special coding elements installed," said General Henryk Pietrzak, the National Defense Ministry Plenipotentiary for the creation of a National Air Operations Center. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A1) A.K.