Harris Corp.’s [HRS] AN/PRC 117G wideband manpack radio is playing a part in the Army’s first Network Integration Evaluation (NIE) at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., and early indications are the radios are performing “exceptionally well,” a senior executive said.
“We have over 30 radios that have been installed in one of the battalions of the 2nd [Brigade] of the 1st Armor Division,” Dennis Moran, vice president, Government Business Development, Harris RF Communications, said yesterday in an interview.
The 2/1 is the heavy brigade combat team conducting the NIE; a unit of some 3,800 soldiers and their equipment, based at Ft. Bliss, Texas.
“Our radios have been installed in the 1st of the 6th battalion in Bradley Fighting Vehicles, M1 tanks and Humvees,” Moran said.
The battalion will be part of a number of vignettes at White Sands Missile Range, right up the road from Ft. Bliss. “During the execution of those vignettes, our radio and our waveform will be evaluated, and if that evaluation comes out positive, then we anticipate that the Army will include us in the architecture for its initial fielding of the brigade combat team modernization which…is Capability Set 13-14,” he said.
Harris personnel have been on the ground at Ft. Bliss and White Sands for some six or seven weeks ensuring the radios were fully installed and all the soldiers trained in their use for the evaluation that runs through mid-July.
“The feedback that we’re receiving from our folks is that the radios have been embraced by the soldiers and by the command team, and that they are performing exceptionally well,” Moran said.
Such good performance was anticipated, Moran said, another nod for the product already proven in Afghanistan.
The Falcon III software has matured and is a more capable waveform than a year or so ago, Moran said, when it could do 10 nodes per subnet. Now it is fielding 30 nodes per subnet. Other minor tweaks have focused on “usability,” or how soldiers interface with it on the screen.
Back in February, the company expected to port Soldier Radio Waveform (SRW) to the 117G about now, and is on track to do so in the next few weeks. The Army expects SRW and Wideband Networking Waveform (WNW) to be the two waveforms used in the ground domain. WNW will port to the 117 later (Defense Daily, March 2).
The NIE has a very detailed plan that will collect data by technical equipment and computers and human evaluators who observe radio performance and capture information from the soldiers who are using them.
Once the NIE is completed, a very thorough evaluation report written by Army Test and Evaluation Command will be part of a package of reports on the NIE.
All the Harris equipment at the NIE is owned and operated by the Army. The company was involved with evaluation planning as subject matter experts on Harris equipment with PEO-I, and was under contract to train soldiers on the radios. Also, Harris has three Field Support Representatives available to respond in case of a trouble ticket or an issue.
The NIE under way now is the start of what is expected to be a biannual event and Harris is looking forward to having more equipment in future such events.
“We have already been told that they want us to bring the 117 again to the October Network Integration Exercise,” Moran said.
Additionally, a few weeks ago, in a sources sought solicitation, PEO I listed five operational gaps they needed filled by capabilities for the October evaluation, and issued a broad invitation to industry of all sizes to offer technology that filled the described gaps.
Harris, like many other companies, is responding by preparing white papers.
“If they think that we have merit to fill a particular gap, then we will have that technology invited to participate in the October NIE, so we’re busy at work writing those white papers,” Moran said.
The NIE process is effective, he said. The Army is able to tell industry: “here’s my operational concept, here are the capabilities that I need, here are the gaps that I have, bring me technology to satisfy those gaps, let me evaluate them and if we fulfill the gap then we will be considered for inclusion in the architecture and then procurement.”
Technology changes so quickly it is the most effective way for the Army to bring in capabilities in a rapid way, he said. “This is not about PowerPoint capabilities,” but real, hardened, capabilities that can stand up to soldiers and the operating environment.
As the NIE continues, Moran said, “We provide capability based on standards based on the Army’s operational requirements and we’re really excited about being out there and we think we’re going to knock it out of the park.”