Up to $350M from USMC for Harris PRC-117 Radios

Harris Corporation has recently endured a difficult period in the stock market. Despite a strong outlook for the tactical radio market, and a competitive international position vis-a-vis key rivals like General Dynamics C4 and Thales Group, there were persistent rumors that the firm was up for sale. EADS openly said that its recent PlantCML acquisition required its full attention, but General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman were also mentioned frequently. In the end, there was no acquisition and the firm’s stock price dropped swiftly to pre-rumor levels. Bloomberg | Forbes | Reuters.

Falcon II Multiband

This leaves the firm back on familiar ground: execution in the international tactical radio market. Harris was recently awarded $118 million in delivery orders to supply the U.S. Marine Corps with Falcon II AN/PRC-117F multiband manpack radios, as part of a new $350 million indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract that will almost double the number used by the USMC. As part of the contract, Harris will also provide 3 dedicated technical service personnel who will be embedded with Marine maintenance companies. Harris release.

The Marine Corps’ situation is similar to many other global militaries, as their Strategic Radio Plan works to move their troops from existing single-band radios to multiband, multimission software-defined radios with longer range, less weight, long-term upgradeability, and better interoperability. As one Marine explained, re: the PRC-117s deployed in Kuwait and Iraq, their uses included:

“…monitoring our IntraSquad Radios (ISR) using the CTCSS bands… SINCGARs to communicate in vehicle convoys, HAVEQUICK to talk to aircraft, single channel LOS VHF/UHF frequencies to talk to aircraft and ground stations, as well as both DAMA and Dedicated SATCOM.”

Industrial Espionage at Eurocopter

As Ferrari racing fans are very aware these days, industrial espionage that goes far beyond the bounds of ethical competitive intelligence is alive and kicking. This is even more true in the aerospace industry, whose national security implications often feature national intelligence organizations undertaking industrial espionage – in some cases, even against allied countries. China is most frequently mentioned in this context, with good reason, but Russia and France have also built reputations in this area.

Raytheon’s South Korean Relationship: from SAM-X to Patriot

PAC-3 test launch

In March of 2008, Raytheon announced an initial contract (amount undisclosed) for preliminary planning efforts aimed at integrating Patriot air defense/ABM missiles into South Korea’s national command and control structure. This work is in preparation for a Foreign Military Sale of the Patriot air and missile defense system to South Korea under its $1.2-1.6 billion SAM-X program. Raytheon said that it expects significant follow-on awards to complete the system integration and to provide command and control, communications and maintenance support equipment, as well as the training of Korean operators and maintainers and technical assistance to the deployed systems.