L3Harris Technologies announced receipt of two production orders totaling $235 million to provide leader and manpack radios for the U.S. Army.
The AN/PRC-163 Leader and AN/PRC-158 Manpack radios are part of the U.S. Army’s Handheld, Manpack & Small Form Fit (HMS) program. These second, full-rate production orders deliver multi-mission networking capability for warfighters in the field.
“The radios we will deliver under these two orders provide our soldiers with a resilient network, enabling integrated soldier systems and vehicular on-the-move communications,” said Dana Mehnert, president, Communication Systems, L3Harris. “The true software-defined architecture also facilitates the porting of future waveform requirements enabling spectral dominance against peer adversaries.”
The industry’s most flexible cryptography-modernization-compliant radio, the two-channel L3Harris AN/PRC-158 radio leverages a software-defined architecture and integrated cross-banding between waveforms to provide advanced capabilities while maintaining backward interoperability with legacy systems. The AN/PRC-158 also includes Mobile User Objective System-ready hardware for satellite communications connectivity while on the move.
The AN/PRC-163 radio enables soldiers to share information up and down the chain of command, integrating voice and data across the Army’s integrated tactical network and with partner nations.
The Army expects to purchase more than 165,000 HMS radios under the indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts, which include a five-year base and an additional five-year option, with a ceiling of more than $16 billion. More than 60,000 AN/PRC-163 and AN/PRC-158 radios provide secure, resilient and interoperable communications capabilities for over 20 allied nations around the world.