Harris Corp. [HRS] recently said it was awarded a $26 million to upgrade and maintain the Defense Department’s Soldier Radio Waveform (SRW) for wideband tactical communications.
Under the indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract Harris’ will use its expertise in wideband networking to add greater capabilities to the open-standard SRW waveform software and make it more widely available to U.S. forces in next-generation tactical radios, the company said.
Developed by the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) program, SRW is a DoD voice and data waveform standard used to extend battlefield IP networks to the tactical edge.
Under terms of the contract, Harris will deliver improved capabilities, maintenance and ongoing support for the waveform over five years.
Key enhancements developed by Harris will be placed in the JTRS Program Information Repository (IR), which was established to facilitate software re-use in DoD tactical radios.
“Harris will apply its unique engineering and field expertise in wideband networking to enhance and evolve SRW to meet today’s mission needs as well as tomorrow’s emerging requirements,’’ said George Helm, president, Department of Defense business, Harris RF Communications. “Our expertise includes numerous successful waveform ports to our Falcon family of radios, as well as unparalleled waveform testing capabilities. We will promote the highest standards of waveform portability and interoperability. In addition, we are also providing the Department of Defense with rights sufficient to invigorate competition, encourage innovation and accelerate fielding of radios running this important waveform.’’
Harris has industry-leading expertise in the performance of SRW, including waveform porting, testing, validation and certification.
The Harris Falcon III® AN/PRC-117G manpack is NSA certified for a Type-1 implementation of SRW.
Additionally, Harris has integrated the AN/PRC-117G and AN/PRC-152A with the JTRS Joint Enterprise Network Manager to assure interoperability with tactical radios developed by other vendors.
About a year ago, the Joint Program Executive Office JTRS successfully tested the ability of radios produced by Harris, ITT [ITT] and Northrop Grumman [NOC]. The three companies integrated SRW into their radios and could form a network and exchange IP data in an interoperable manner. The SRW Network Manager monitored the network throughout the tests.
Both the AN/PRC-117G and AN/PRC-152A operated SRW in the recent Army Network Integration Evaluation at Fort Bliss, Texas and White Sands, N.M. A key goal of the NIE was to validate the Army’s network architecture, which includes both the AN/PRC-117G and AN/PRC-152A radios, for Capability Set 13.