Harris extends wideband networking to U.S. Army Brigade


Harris Corporation has provided integrated
wideband networking capabilities that connected dismounted soldiers to senior
commanders within a Brigade Combat Team at the recent U.S. Army Network
Integration Evaluation.


Harris deployed a two-channel Falcon III AN/PRC-117G vehicular system that transmitted voice and wideband data between
two separate tactical networks. The system consisted of two AN/PRC-117G radios
connected to each other in a vehicular amplifier adapter.


Soldiers at the NIE 12.1 integrated the
AN/PRC-117G with the new AN/PRC-152A wideband handheld radios to extend
networking connectivity from brigade to the tactical edge. The extended system
resulted in wideband communication services that covered all of White Sands, an
area of 3,200 square miles.


The AN/PRC-152A was used to send voice,
data, and position location information from the dismounted soldier over a
backbone Adaptive Wideband Networking Waveform (ANW2) network. The AN/PRC-152A
is the first NSA Type-1 certified handheld radio to offer wideband networking
as well as standard legacy waveforms.


“The two-channel Harris radio systems
evaluated at NIE provided soldiers across the battle space with real-time voice,
data and video, delivered for the first time over the secure, wideband tactical
network,” said Dennis Moran, vice president, Government Business Development,
Harris RF Communications.


The two-channel AN/PRC-117G vehicular
system at NIE 12.1 simultaneously operated two wideband waveforms. One radio
operated the JTRS Soldier Radio Waveform (SRW), for communication from platoon
levels through to company commands; the other radio ran ANW2 and transmitted
voice and data from company to battalion and brigade. The Harris system moved
information between the SRW and ANW2 networks, allowing for seamless
communication across the battlefield, from platoon level to battalion and back.


Once the data reached the ANW2 network, it
was populated over the Army’s Warfighter Information Network-Tactical,
providing a common operating picture from the foxhole to the brigade
headquarters. Applications used over the Harris Falcon III radios were TIGR,
file transfer, chat messages and email. During NIE 12.1, the Harris radios were
deployed in rucksacks, vehicles, aerostats, fixed wing aircraft and RAID
towers.


Harris expanded participation in the NIE
12.1 follows its performance in the inaugural exercise earlier this summer.
Shortly after the completion of the first NIE, Harris received a $66.3 million
order to provide AN/PRC-117G multiband manpack radios in support of Army
tactical radio modernization.


By Telecomlead.com Team
[email protected]