Friday, October 13, 2006

New Military HF Radios Heading Overseas

RF logs $178M in military work
Army backpack radios make up bulk of order

By David Tyler Staff writer (Democrat and Chronicle)

Harris Corp.'s RF Communications Division has begun shipping radios to meet contracts and orders worth $178 million, with one of the orders labeled "urgent" for Harris radios to be used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The biggest chunk of the work involves $130 million in orders from the U.S. Army for Harris' high frequency radio system known as Falcon II AN/PRC-150(C). The orders are part of a larger contract announced earlier this year.

"This significant order demonstrates the Army's continued standardization on the AN/PRC-150(C) that is broadly used by the Army Reserve and Army National Guard," said Dana Mehnert, president of Rochester-based RF.

The PRC-150 is a backpack unit that allows ground-to-ground and ground-to-air communications from troops on the battlefield.

Harris RF also won a $46 million deal from the Army for its AN/PRC-117F(C) multiband manpack radio, which transmits satellite data and voice communications.

The U.S. Navy, meanwhile, ordered $1.9 million in Falcon (R) III AN/PRC-152 (C) multiband handheld radios, to meet what Harris called "an urgent operational requirement" for Navy units in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those units include explosive ordnance disposal and the Naval Coastal Warfare Group.

Thanks to Hilary and Rachel Baughn, MT editor for info above.