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Identify Friend or Foe Transponder

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known as an IFF transponder, this device was a kind of subspace radio wave generator used to provide a simple way to identify a starship. It provided a burst of information about the ownership and registry of a starship, including data on armament, ship's compliment, name, and class, which could be analyzed by IFF receivers. If the codes checked out, the starship was identified on targeting computers a friend. If not, then it was considered an enemy target. Many governments, military forces, and planetary traffic control systems had their own codes, to mark their native ships. Smugglers usually had two or three IFF transponders on their ships, which could be swapped out for different identities. One of the more famous IFF transponder codes was the Alderaanian code used to link the Another Chance to its protective escort.