L3Harris Technologies, in collaboration with an industry partner, illustrated the significant advantages of rapid and resilient communications during a successful live demonstration of a U.S. government-owned next generation waveform integrated into the company’s Pantera and BANSHEE™ 2 solutions.
During the November 2023 event, conducted by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), L3Harris deployed three software-defined radios to support line-of-sight command-and-control and data-movement capabilities via Waveform X.
The L3Harris Pantera radio was onboard a GA-ASI MQ-20 Avenger aircraft; the L3Harris BANSHEE 2 radio on the ground, a component of the Mission Control Element, worked in concert with a third networked radio, also on the ground.
The demonstration showcased the adaptive line-of-sight communications capability of Waveform X, a non-proprietary U.S. government-owned specification, that uniquely positions the U.S. Department of Defense for next-generation mission concepts of operation in a revolutionary way.
“Waveform X provides our nation’s warfighters with the advanced communications needed to successfully carry out missions when faced with challenging future threats,” said Lauren Barnes, L3Harris president of Broadband Communications Systems. “This flight exercise demonstrates the ability to use a government-owned radically adaptive waveform hosted on a variety of existing radio form factors to connect air and ground nodes today.”
Leveraging pre-existing solutions
With intent to shorten development timelines and reduce costs, Waveform X may be hosted by pre-existing L3Harris solutions, such as Pantera and BANSHEE 2.
Pantera is a ruggedized 3U OpenVPX system designed to host advanced waveforms and is a precursor to the Rapidly Adaptable Standards-compliant Open Radio (RASOR™) family of Sensor Open Systems Approach (SOSA)-aligned communications chassis.
BANSHEE 2 is a Size, Weight and Power-optimized software-defined radio that can be hosted in small form factor vehicles, such as Group 3 unmanned aerial systems or smaller.
L3Harris’ Waveform X implementation is currently assessed as Technical Readiness Level 9.
L3Harris intends to demonstrate Waveform X and its family of resilient waveforms on a Government Reference Architecture (GRA)-compliant RASOR within the next fiscal year.
Advancing resilient communications
Waveform X continues to advance the resilient technologies the United States and allies need for future multidomain battlespaces. The waveform provides mission system connectivity using multi-access mesh networking designed for future conflicts.
L3Harris is proud to assist with the implementation and advancement of this type of technology to support warfighters across all domains.
The successful demonstration with GA-ASI follows a series of similar military-industry tests incorporating L3Harris solutions across all domains.
