More than 50 representatives of the US Navy and industry attended a live, “over-the-ocean” demonstration of Harris Corp.’s new SeaLancet™ RT-1944/U tactical radio— designed to provide network-centric communications to both ground- and air-based networks.
During the three-day series of demonstrations, Harris successfully showcased the radio’s high-throughput, long-range network-centric IP communications capabilities.
The demonstrations featured an aircraft simulating an unmanned aerial vehicle and three boats off the east coast of Florida as unmanned surface vehicles and tactical maritime platforms.
Attendees witnessed real-time results of the radio’s high-throughput transmission of voice (VoIP), data, files, chat and digital streaming video from multiple platforms to the simulated Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) radio room and command center. Network IP traffic was demonstrated between up to five nodes and at data throughput rates as high as 54 Mbps, and at distances between nodes of greater than 100 nautical miles. This also successfully demonstrated the ability to relay communications between surface modules at distances greater than 200 nautical miles via an airborne relay.
SeaLancet™ was designed to communicate high-volume sensor data from Navy platforms to distant tactical ships, such as LCS. Applications include anti-submarine warfare, mine warfare, anti-surface warfare, maritime interdiction, ship-to-ship communications and wireless pier capability. The highly ruggedized radio can survive submersion in water up to 1 meter and operate at high altitudes.
In addition to its use onboard LCSs, the compact radio can be applied to a wide range of Navy platforms, including ships, aircraft, unmanned vehicles, gateway buoys and distributed sensors. It also addresses the needs of similar maritime missions for the Department of Defense (DoD), the US Coast Guard and international military forces.