Advertisement

AN/PRC-117G concept
(click to view full)

Harris Corp recently received a basic purchasing agreement contract worth up to $419 million to supply the US Army with Falcon III AN/PRC-117G [data sheet, PDF] multiband tactical manpack radios, and vehicular power-amplifier adapter systems. The initial delivery order under the contract is valued at $165 million. Radio systems from this order will be deployed by the Army for missions worldwide to provide next-generation, high-speed tactical satellite and voice-and-data communications.

The AN/PRC-117G manpack radio is about half the size of currently fielded multiband systems, and has a frequency range of 30 MHz – 2 GHz. The radio supports streaming video, imagery, biometrics, logistics and other data-intensive applications. The Falcon III-R AN/PRC-117G-C is a JTRS-approved manpack radio that incorporates the Harris Advanced Networking Wideband Waveform (ANW2) for mobile ad-hoc networking, which provides secure IP data to the tactical Internet at on-air rates up to 10 Megabits per second (Mbps). This high data rate is joined with mobile ad-hoc networking, automated network establishment and maintenance, and integrated security. In addition, the AN/PRC-117G-C and its software-defined architecture offers interoperability with currently fielded radios, incorporating SINCGARS, Havequick II, and the High Performance Waveform (HPW), as well as MIL-STD-181B Tactical Satellite (TACSAT) capability. For encryption, the AN/PRC-117G-C uses the Harris Sierra II software-programmable encryption module. In January 2008, Harris announced its NSA certification, and the PRC-117G was part of a 10-day Army exercise in December 2007 that focused on integrating new networking technologies with the Patriot Missile System.