US Army To Test Exelis SideHat SRW Applique Radios

Exelis has won a contract to deliver SideHat SRW (Solidier Radio Waveform) Applique radios for evaluation by the US Army, the company announced today. 

SideHat provides a critical networking capability specifically developed for the vehicular electromagnetic and physical environment experienced on the battlefield. 

This testing is expected to enable the US military to obtain the required Material Release for SRW applique fielding. The Exelis SideHat will host SRW, a waveform developed by Exelis that operates in the UHF and L-Band frequency ranges and provides an affordable second channel solution to Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio Systems (SINCGARS) vehicular radio installations. 

SideHat was also designed for easy integration and common user interfaces with the widely fielded SINCGARS radio, the primary tactical communications backbone manufactured by Exelis for the Army. SINCGARS with SideHat and SRW delivers a system solution with up to four channels (two SRW and two VHF).

It enables dismounted soldiers to communicate with both voice and data to mounted soldiers in vehicles within a larger network. 

“The Exelis SideHat provides a robust and efficient solution, built upon existing Army capabilities, to help develop and grow the Army’s future tactical network,” said Nick Bobay, president of the Exelis Night Vision and Communications Solutions division.

“We’ve delivered more than 400,000 ‘SideHat-ready’ SINCGARS radios to the Army and developed the Soldier Radio Waveform. As the developer and producer of these other key network components, we bring a unique capability and skill set needed to deliver and integrate an SRW applique into the existing network architecture,” he added.