Harris announces a string of new Falcon radio awards

Harris Corporation has announced a number of new contracts over the past week for its tactical radio products. The awards, which include two unnamed Middle East countries and Poland, are worth a combined $42 million.

On 17 September the company revealed it has received a $25 million order from a government in the Middle East for Falcon II high-frequency tactical radios as part of a military communications modernisation programme.  Under this contract the company will provide the Falcon II RF-5800H base stations, vehicular systems and manpack radios to provide beyond line-of-sight terrestrial voice and data communications. The RF-5800H offers advanced features such as Third Generation-Automatic Link Establishment for initiating contact between two HF radios; integrated data link protocols for data sharing such as embedded text messaging and embedded GPS receivers.

On 18 September another $10 million contract was announced that would see the company supply the Polish Ministry of National Defense with Falcon III AN/PRC-117G multiband manpack radios and Falcon II AN/PRC-150 high-frequency manpack radios. According to Harris, the Ministry of National Defense is acquiring the AN/PRC-117G multiband radio to provide communications interoperability with US, NATO and coalition forces. The AN/PRC-117G delivers combat net radio, tactical satellite and ground-to-air capabilities in a lightweight, versatile platform. The AN/PRC-150 provides long-range Type-1 secure beyond-line-of-sight communications to forces operating in challenging environments.

This was followed by an announcement on 19 September that the company had received a $7.2 million order to supply a nation in the Middle East with Falcon III RF-7800S Secure Personal Radios and Falcon II high-frequency manpack radios. The nation is acquiring the radios to provide security forces with high-performance line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight tactical communications. The Falcon III RF-7800S is a lightweight body-worn tactical radio that provides full-duplex voice and data communications over two kilometres. Optimised for maximum performance across highly variable environments, the RF-7800S secure personal role radio provides continuous coverage in the 350 to 450 MHz frequency range. The radio offers dual push-to-talk capabilities and allows simultaneous communication for voice, data and video.