Harris' Critical Implementation Review of U.S. Army's MET Program

Harris Corp. (News - Alert), a provider of communications and information technology solutions that provides its services to government and commercial markets, has announced that it has successfully completed the Critical Implementation Review for the U.S. Army's Modernization of Enterprise Terminals, or “MET’ program. The company had been awarded this contract only nine months ago. Leveraging the next-generation, military satellite communications terminals, high-priority military communications and missile defense systems of the U.S. Army will be able to get worldwide backbone.

After the completion of this critical review, design baseline of the terminals has been established that ensures that the 10-year program will now move into the next phase, in which the First Article Test units will be manufactured, coded, integrated, tested and certified. The Project Manager, Defense Communications and Army Transmission Systems team conducted the review January 12-15 in Melbourne, Florida. This team is an organization within the Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems.

According to Wes Covell, president of Harris Defense Programs, completing this review in only nine months is a major step forward for the MET program as it establishes a common understanding of the design baseline and ensures all technical, program and supportability requirements are properly accounted for in the design. The Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract is valued at $600 million, and Harris is the prime contractor for it. According to the terms and conditions of the contract, it will develop, test and certify four unique terminal configurations during a 30-month, First Article Test phase.

Apart from it, the company will also provide production hardware under a five-year base contract, with one five-year option.  Harris will also offer support field activities such as site preparation, installation, test, operations and maintenance, as the Test Readiness Review of the program has been scheduled for September 2010.

As a part of the MET program, Harris will replace up to 80 AN/GSC-52, AN/GSC-39, AN/FSC-78 and other aging strategic satellite communications terminals around the world. It will replace these terminals with new X-band or simultaneous X- and Ka-band terminals. With the help of the new terminals, it will be able to interface with legacy satellite systems and the new Wideband Global Satellite constellation.

Offering compatibility with Internet Protocol and Dedicated Circuit Connectivity within the Global Information (News - Alert) Grid, the new terminals offer critical 'reach-back' capability for the warfighter. Leveraging the capability, a soldier in the field is able to effectively communicate back to the main base or command and access resources not available at that remote location. 

February 2010, Harris Corporation received a $78 million order to provide additional Falcon II AN/VRC-104 high-frequency tactical radio systems for use in U.S. Department of Defense Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicles.

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