Work on the program will support the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) contract recently awarded to Lockheed Martin to develop ACS, the U.S. Army's next-generation airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platform.
Under the SDD phase of the program, the Lockheed Martin team will deliver five certified, mission-ready airborne ISR systems, with initial testing planned for 2006. The balance of the effort would be performed under a follow-on, low-rate initial production contract anticipated in 2007, followed by a full production contract in 2009.
ACS is a synergistic system that is rapidly deployable and designed to carry multiple intelligence sensors for battlefield surveillance and for intelligence gathering and sharing.
Harris is leading the development of the communications portion of the ACS's Core Information System and providing various VHF and UHF radios, airborne SATCOM and the Common Data Link.
Harris is also playing a key leadership role in developing the Intelligence Processing System, providing various signal and imagery intelligence exploitation technologies.
ACS is designed to replace the Army's existing GUARDRAIL/Common Sensor and the Airborne Reconnaissance Low ISR systems. ACS can be tailored to the specific needs of the warfighter in the field and also can be scaled to meet the needs of the land force commander.
"Harris has long been considered a 'national asset' by its defense and intelligence customers for providing innovative ISR systems and solutions," said Bob Henry, corporate senior VP and president, Harris Government Communications Systems Division (GCSD).
"We are very pleased to be part of the Lockheed Martin ACS team and to play such a major role in the development of communications systems and architectures for tomorrow's airborne sensors."
"ACS is a key component in the Army's support of forces in the critical area of ISR," said Dan Pearson, president, Defense Programs business unit, Harris GCSD.
"As communications Integrated Product Team lead, Harris is excited about the opportunity to provide Lockheed Martin with an integrated solution for ACS that will be instrumental in arming the Army warfighter with near real-time, actionable intelligence critical to maintaining information dominance."