FISINT
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
FISINT stands for Foreign Instrumentation Signals INTelligence, and refers to a subset of ELINT/SIGINT restricted to monitoring primarily non-human communication.
Examples of such communication include:
- Telemetry data. Missiles and other remotely-monitored devices send back continuous streams of data concerning their location, speed, engine status and other metrics. This data can provide valuable information on the actual performance of the missile and especially its throw-weight, i.e. the potential size of its nuclear warheads.
- Radio beacons: navigational beacons.
- Radio command systems for tracking and firing weapons, or guiding drone aircraft or satellites.
- Electronic interrogators: "friend or foe" responses from transponders in aircraft used to distinguish enemy craft from friendly ones.
- Video data links. These may be present in UAVs or from satellites used for reconnaissance.
- The broadcast of fuzing command to surface-to-air missiles.
