Harris receives Falcon III radios order

Harris has announced that it has received an order worth $39 million from US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) for Falcon III AN/PRC-152A wideband handheld tactical radios. The announcement came in a 16 May, 2012 company statement.

This order is the initial delivery order from a new $400 million indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract provided to Harris. The IDIQ supports USSOCOM’s Capital Equipment Replacement Programme and represents ‘an interim step in the modernisation of the SOCOM tactical radio inventory’. The contract also covers the Harris Falcon III AN/PRC-117G multiband manpack radio.

Harris said that the AN/PRC-152A offers tactical users the broadest set of capabilities in any handheld radio, including both wideband and narrowband waveforms. Wideband networking capabilities will initially be provided by the Harris Adaptive Networking Wideband Waveform, already certified by the National Security Agency for Type-1 High Assurance Internet Protocol Encryption (HAIPE). Harris expects to receive NSA Type-1 certification to operate the JTRS Soldier Radio Waveform in the radio later this year.

The AN/PRC-152A also hosts SINCGARS, VHF/UHF Line-of-Sight, HaveQuick, IW for tactical satellite communications and other combat net radio waveforms. This makes the AN/PRC-152A ‘the only Type-1 HAIPE certified wideband networking handheld radio that is also fully interoperable with deployed US Department of Defence radios’.