IDEX 2019: Harris launches Falcon Net Ecosystem communications network

Harris Corporation launched its Falcon Net Ecosystem communications network solution at the International Defence Exhibition and Conference 2019 (IDEX 2019) in Abu Dhabi in February.

Development of the Falcon Net Ecosystem began in early 2017 and builds on Harris’s experience providing communications networks under Australia’s Land 200 programme, the Philippine’s C4I programme, the Emirates Command & Control System (ECCS) Land Tactical System (ELTS) for the UAE, and others.

Christopher Aebli, Harris’s vice-president and general manager for international tactical communications, told Jane’s that the Ecosystem was an overall architecture with common services, applications, waveforms, and frequencies to provide an interoperable system operating from the headquarters level to the tactical edge.

As well as Harris’s Falcon III radios, the Ecosystem includes the waveform family, battle management applications, and network management system. Harris has a portfolio of more than 50 waveforms, such as the widely-used wideband ANW2 and the narrowband TNW-75. Its battle management application, hC2, is based on Systematic’s SitaWare command-and-control (C2) software suite with additional Harris modules. Network management is conducted using Harris’s hManager software suite.

The Harris RF-7850W HCLOS, which now has a frequency-hopping capability, displayed at IDEX 2019. The radio is on the left and the point-to-point antenna on the right. (Giles Ebbutt)

Aebli said the Falcon Net Ecosystem was geared towards customers looking for a relatively small scale, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solution that could be easily customised where necessary, such as in the language used for applications, and could be delivered quickly and incrementally if necessary. One target market was existing customers, possibly with earlier generation equipment, looking to upgrade or expand.