The Beazer's Defence Farces

Lavvie Prodders has this reference to the rambling last spray to parliament by the Beazer. The Beazer had this intriguing offering "The radar of our Hornet could not identify most of the aircraft in this region as hostile—in other words, our front-line fighter could not shoot down people who would be the enemies in this region." By radar I think Beazer means the IFF ( the identify friend or foe system) which is not part of the radar system but a separate transponder. This system which is still far from perfect is probably only of use ( and then limited) in war conditions when the air space isn't as crowded. Its liberal use in peacetime is likely to get civilian aircraft shot down. ( see the Iran Air Flight 655 shoot down tho its abilities will have improved significantly since) This opens up a number of questions about this and other defence purchases ( which Wikipedia can't answer of course)
1. Was U.S. military IFF in development during the time of purchase of the Hornet?
2. What exactly was the reason for the U.S.'s failure to update the Hornet's IFF ?
The U.S. military if it is thinking clearly( contradiction?) would see that allies have compatible if detuned IFFs and perhaps that was what the delay was about : a standards committee setting that detuning.