New radio developments close at hand: Harris' JTRS handheld radio.

When looking at the field of tactical handheld radios, a new unit stands out. The JTRS Inter/Intra Team Radio (JITR) from Harris Corporation is the latest software-defined radio that condenses secure communications capabilities into a handheld package. What sets it apart, however, is its compliance with the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) Software Communications Architecture (SCA). The JITR shares commonality and waveform interoperability with the company's highly successful AN/PRC-117F(C) multiband manpack and is geared to customers who need a very capable, handheld, multiband/multimission radio.

The evolution of the JITR comes from the company's desire to participate in the various JTRS programs with a multiband TYPE 1 handheld radio product. Some of the work evolved from Harris' participation on the JTRS step 2BX program where it validated a number of the waveforms in a manpack platform. The company harnessed much of that technology and incorporated it into the JITR. The company demonstrated a prototype hand-held radio to CECOM in November 2003 and, with its own funding, furthered the JITR development process. The result, pending an NSA-certification slated for Spring 2005, will be a TYPE 1 COMSEC-embedded radio that is JTRS compliant, and will be differentiated from the other TYPE 1 multiband handheld products in a number of ways.

The radio's embedded GPS capability eliminates the need to carry around a separate GPS unit, and provides positioning and time-of-day information for synchronization. Another differentiating feature is the embedded high-performance waveform that allows interoperability with AN/PRC-117F(C) users. The JITR also will have the COBRA down-pilot waveform embedded in the radio as well as APCO 25. In addition to the standard line-of-sight communications features, the company has added a number of key differentiated features like SINCGARS and HAVEQUICK and the 188-181 SATCOM waveform that should be particularly useful for its U.S. SOCOM users.

One of the main differentiators for the JITR is that it will offer the Sierra II COMSEC, rapidly becoming a COMSEC standard for a number of modernization programs. The company recently received certification from the National Security Agency (NSA) for its Sierra[TM] II programmable cryptographic module. Sierra II is now NSA certified for the protection of voice and data traffic up through the Top Secret/SCI level.

The Harris JITR is just the latest in handheld radio developments from Harris. The company has achieved worldwide acceptance of its versatile Falcon[R] II VHF handheld radio from customers in the United States, Asia. Europe, Middle East, and Africa. An earlier-generation multiband product has been sold to the international market and the company recently introduced its UHF that is geared to military operations in urban terrains.