5 October 2015 army-technology.com

Harris has secured a contract to supply a new specialised, handheld, tactical communication system to the US Special Operations Forces (SOF).

Awarded by the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), the $390m single-source, indefinite delivery/quantity contract consists of a five-year base period and one-year option. Under the contract, the company will deliver new integrated two-channel, handheld radios as part of the SOF Tactical Communications (STC) programme. The STC handheld radio combines communications and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities to meet the SOF's unique mission requirements in the harshest environments. Designed to address rigorous requirements for small, lightweight, multiband, multifunction, multimission tactical radios, the STC platform can be upgraded easily and features built-in backward interoperability to communicate over conventional networks.

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Mar 17, 2015 ASDNews Source : Harris Corporation

Two unfurlable mesh antenna reflectors developed by Harris Corporation have successfully deployed onboard the third Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite built by Lockheed Martin. This represents the fifth and sixth successful Harris reflector deployments in the planned 5-satellite MUOS system. The announcement was made during Satellite 2015 being held March 16-19 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

The MUOS satellite constellation operates like a smart phone network in the sky, vastly improving current secure mobile satellite communications for warfighters on the move. Unlike previous systems, MUOS provides users and on-demand, beyond-line-of-sight capability to transmit and receive high-quality, prioritized voice and mission data, on a high-speed IP-based system. Once fully deployed, MUOS will be compatible with, but provide 16-times the capacity of the legacy UHF satellite system.

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21 March 2014 naval-technology.com

Harris's Falcon III AN/PRC-117G multiband manpack radio, hosting the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) waveform, has successfully completed initial interoperability testing.

The test, conducted at the Joint Tactical Networking Center MUOS Reference Implementation Laboratory in San Diego, California, US, demonstrated interoperability with the addition of MUOS software to AN/PRC-117G radios, without modification from their standard hardware configurations.

The US Navy's MUOS is a next-generation narrowband tactical satellite communications system capable of enhancing ground communications for US forces on the move.

In addition to providing cellular-based service through tactical radios, the MUOS offers more communications capability for military users over existing systems, including simultaneous voice, video and data - similar to the capabilities experienced today with smart phones.

"Simple software upgrades will bring MUOS to more than 30,000 AN/PRC-117G radios already in use, giving the DoD the most cost-effective solution for rapidly transitioning its tactical satellite radio inventory to support this important new capability."

Harris RF Communications Department of Defense business president George Helm said that the company is rapidly delivering on its commitment to provide the MUOS waveform in AN/PRC-117G tactical radios.

"Simple software upgrades will bring MUOS to more than 30,000 AN/PRC-117G radios already in use, giving the DoD the most cost-effective solution for rapidly transitioning its tactical satellite radio inventory to support this important new capability," Helm added.

In order to provide a new and more capable UHF military satellite communication system, the MUOS uses a commercial 3G Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) cellular technology with geosynchronous satellites.

A new round of tests of the AN/PRC-117G is scheduled to commence at the US government MUOS system integration labs in Arizona, US.

Last year, the radio successfully completed separate on-air tests in San Diego and near the North Pole.

11 September 2013 army-technology.com

Harris has introduced a new airborne mission radio for enhanced international ground-to-air tactical communications at the ongoing Defence Security and Equipment International (DSEI) exhibition in London, UK.

Dubbed RF-7850A, the new tactical radio is designed to deliver secure and reliable voice and wideband data communications for a range of ground-to-air missions, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), close-air support (CAS) and border patrol.

Harris RF communications international business president, Brendan O'Connell, said the radio enables international forces on both ground and in aircraft to exchange real-time information through interoperable voice, video, images and other ISR applications.

''With more information in hand, air crews will be able to respond quickly and appropriately, resulting in improved mission success,'' O'Connell said.

The radio has been launched in two configurations, namely RF-7850A-UA and RF-7850A-MR, to help offer a better solution than current systems for a broad range of platforms..

A lightweight and single-channel radio, RF-7850A-UA is designed for use with unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for rapid data transmission from ISR platforms to air and ground forces, as well as range extension for ground tactical networks.

Featuring significant size, weight and power advantages over the existing communication systems, RF-7850A-MR is a multiband dual-channel radio engineered for use in helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.

Capable of easily integrating with airframe intercom systems, the radio delivers two independent channels in the same physical space as legacy single-channel solutions. It also has cross-banding capabilities for bridging of disparate radio networks.

The radios feature a simple user interface and are fully interoperable with all members of the company's Falcon II and Falcon III families, including the RF-7800M wideband radio.

In addition, the radios use the Harris adaptive networking wideband waveform (ANW2) and the new time division multiple access (TDMA) networking waveform for wideband networking.