US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) MH-47 and MH-60 helicopters will feature the AN/PRC-160(V) wideband Type 1 HF manpack radio, under a new $45.84 million development contract for L3Harris Technologies.
The deal, announced by the DoD on 7 December but formally awarded on 8 December, includes $6.25 million in FY2021 procurement funds for aircraft interface backplane production and software modifications.
L3Harris describes the AN/PRC-160(V) as ‘the market’s only standalone solution for Beyond-Line-Of-Sight [BLoS] communications in the absence of satellite. This wideband system is also the world’s first and only HF manpack meeting all NSA [National Security Agency] crypto-modernisation standards’.
The software-designed architecture of the manpack radio allows encryption updates, while anti-spoofing GPS prevents false friendly force and target reporting.