Harris Corporation receives $25m in orders from USMC

Harris Corporation, an international communications and information technology company, has received orders totaling $25 million from the US Marine Corps for Harris Falcon III AN/PRC-117G wideband manpack tactical radio systems, remote controls, other accessories and field support. The AN/PRC-117G is providing the Marine Corps with advanced communication capabilities for interoperable voice and wideband networking of the battlefield.

The field-proven AN/PRC-117G, deployed widely by the Marines and other branches of the US Department of Defense, is a first-of-its-kind radio system. The radio enables mobile ad-hoc wideband networking of the battlefield for voice and high-bandwidth data communications such as streaming video, collaborative chat and other applications. The Marine orders were received by Harris in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011.

"These orders highlight the successes of the Marine Corps in deploying mobile, wideband ad-hoc networks using the AN/PRC-117G," said Brendan O'Connell, president, Department of Defense business, Harris RF Communications. "They also demonstrate the power of the Falcon III family, which provides end-to-end networking capability at all echelons of the Department of Defense tactical network. The AN/PRC-117G offers enhanced flexibility in operational planning and execution for mounted and dismounted users alike, and is capable of establishing reliable tactical networks to pass chat, e-mail, ISR feeds and biometrics and other types of data."

The AN/PRC-117G provides warfighters with real-time information through a man-portable software-defined radio with significantly reduced size and weight. In addition to the radios, the Marines are acquiring RF-7800R remote controls, which provide full remote control capability of the Falcon II and Falcon III product lines, including the AN/PRC-117G and AN/PRC-152. The RF-7800R remote controls provide support for both voice and networked data applications.

Harris developed the AN/PRC-117G wideband radio following the JTRS program Enterprise Business Model (EBM). The EBM encourages companies to develop next-generation solutions in tactical communications using their own investment capital to integrate JTRS waveform software. In doing so, the EBM stimulates competition, increases innovation, and reduces costs through software re-use.

Widely deployed with more than 10,000 radios shipped, the Harris Falcon III AN/PRC-117G is the first wideband manpack radio system with a JTRS-certified Software Communications Architecture and NSA Type-1 certified information security. The AN/PRC-117G provides unprecedented situational awareness through wideband networking of the battlefield and delivering critical real-time information to warfighters on the move and their field commanders. The AN/PRC-117G enables a growing number of network-enabled missions such as intelligence reporting and analysis, collaborative chat, route planning, MEDEVAC, convoy tracking and checkpoint biometrics.

The Falcon III AN/PRC-117G and other Falcon III radios have been adopted by the US Department of Defense, federal agencies and key allies such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, other NATO countries and Australia. In 2010, C4ISR Journal named the AN/PRC-117G as a Big 25 award winner in the category of network systems, recognizing the technology for having "a significant impact in defeating terrorists, preventing attacks, and enabling troops to make the right decisions on the battlefield."

Source: Harris