Harris Corporation Exhibits High-Performance Wideband/Narrowband Secure Personal Radio for U.S. Department of Defense

Harris Corporation, an international communications and information technology company, exhibited the Falcon III RF-300S, a lightweight, wearable tactical radio designed for the U.S. Department of Defense, at the LandWarNet conference in August.

The RF-300S delivers voice and situational awareness to the individual warfighter, and will allow the U.S. military to upgrade squad-level communications with rugged, high-performance, software-defined, military-grade radios with built-in GPS. The RF-300S is designed to address the emerging requirements of the U.S. Department of Defense, such as the Rifleman Radio program.

The RF-300S will provide the individual warfighter with wideband data and situational awareness in addition to narrowband voice capabilities. The radio runs the APCO Project 25 (P25) waveform, allowing secure interoperability with currently deployed squad radios. It also operates the Soldier Radio Waveform (SRW) and the Harris Advanced Wideband Networking Waveform (ANW2) for networked tactical communications. The operating environment in the RF-300S is based on the Software Communications
Architecture delivered in Harris Corporation's widely fielded Falcon III line of tactical radios.

The RF-300S is secured using the Suite-B algorithms, including AES for encryption, allowing interoperability with other Suite-B enabled communication products. Properly implemented Suite-B algorithms can provide protection of information up through the classified SECRET level in a non-cryptographic controlled item (CCI) environment, eliminating the need for every soldier to have a security clearance. Harris plans to submit the RF-300S to the U.S. Government for evaluation for use in non-CCI, Secret and below applications.

The radio covers a frequency range of 225 MHz to 470 MHz. It incorporates a Global Positioning System receiver for easy-to-use position tracking and messaging services, while reducing the load carried by the soldier.

Harris Corporation