Harris Completes Testing Falcon III Manpack Radio With MUOS

Harris Corporation has successfully completed the next in a series of interoperability tests for the Falcon III AN/PRC-117G multiband manpack radio hosting the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) waveform.

MUOS is the next-generation US Department of Defense military communications system for delivering satellite-based voice and data communication services through secure tactical radios.

Harris demonstrated MUOS capability in the AN/PRC-117G during tests at the MUOS Test Radio Access Facility in Sunnyvale, California. The test facility is operated on behalf of the U.S. government by Lockheed Martin, prime system integrator for the MUOS system.

"We successfully completed all scheduled tests and worked through additional test scenarios," said George Helm, president, U.S. Department of Defense business, Harris RF Communications. "This milestone puts us on schedule to release the MUOS waveform through a software upgrade to the combat-proven AN/PRC-117G terminal next year. The DoD has already fielded more than 30,000 of these MUOS-ready terminals."

The Sunnyvale MUOS test facility includes a ground station, satellite payload and simulators to emulate various environmental scenarios, such as operations in rain, under forest canopy and within buildings. Harris-tested radios were unmodified from their standard hardware configurations.

Harris is developing the MUOS waveform to operate on multiple radio hardware platforms, including the AN/PRC-117G, AN/VRC-118 two-channel mid-tier networking vehicular radio solution, and the new Harris multichannel manpack and next-generation handheld radio systems.