ROCHESTER, N.Y., 25 Aug. 2005. The Harris Corp. RF Communications Division in Rochester, N.Y., earned certification from the National Security Agency (NSA) for the company's multiband, multimission Falcon III handheld tactical radio, company officials announced Aug. 24.
Along with this certification, the radio received its official U.S. government nomenclature: AN/PRC-152. The radio uses the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) Software Communications Architecture (SCA), and is the first radio utilizing the JTRS SCA operating environment to receive NSA certification for the protection of voice and data traffic up through the top secret level, Harris officials say.
"The AN/PRC-152 is a next-generation, multiband handheld radio that offers our military users all of the capability they need to meet urgent operational requirements today while facilitating the transition to JTRS," says Dana Mehnert, vice president and general manager of U.S. government products at Harris RF.
"These new capabilities include programmable communications security (COMSEC) and the Software Communications Architecture (SCA) to allow the addition of future JTRS waveforms," Mehnert says.
An embedded global positioning system (GPS) is an option on the radio. Also, a vehicular adapter option enables the AN/PRC-152 to be installed in the U.S.-standard combat net radio mount and used as a vehicular radio.
The AN/PRC-152 is certified using the Harris Sierra II software programmable encryption module, which is a small, reprogrammable cryptographic device that can be embedded in a variety of voice and data products.
Sierra, which received NSA certification last year, targets applications requiring small, low-power, low-cost cryptographic solutions.
For more information contact Harris RF online at www.rfcomm.harris.com.
