The company has spent more than two decades building, operating and modernizing the network for the U.S. National Airspace System. Its coverage extends across the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and Puerto Rico.
“What we’re offering is not a promise of future capability,” said Paul Groppel, Business Development Lead for Defense, L3Harris Mission Networks. “It’s an invitation to look at what already exists and recognize its potential.”
The infrastructure includes more than 750 radio stations, 36 automated weather observation stations, 12 regional control stations and over 225 service delivery points. A companion communications network carries voice, data and video to more than 50,000 users at over 4,400 facilities.
L3Harris said the communications network maintains availability of 99.99971%. The sites are equipped with secure and redundant telecommunications, commercial and backup power, precision timing and climate-controlled equipment.
At the centre of the proposal is the company’s Enterprise Surveillance Manager, which combines target tracks from multiple sources into a common operational picture. Those sources include radar, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast and wide-area multilateration.
“The infrastructure we’ve developed over decades of national-scale operations is extraordinary in its reach and reliability,” said Jay Kreider, General Manager, Surveillance Programs, L3Harris Mission Networks. “The hard work of building a nationwide network is already done.”
L3Harris said existing radar sites and ground stations could host additional sensors, including passive radars and software-defined Active Electronically Scanned Array panels. The expanded network could then track non-cooperative targets across the continental United States and send data to military and homeland security agencies.
ADS-B transmissions allow cooperative aircraft to broadcast their identity, position and flight information. Fusing those signals with radar and other sensor data could help operators filter known civilian traffic and concentrate on unidentified tracks.
“You can isolate the non-cooperative tracks, the ones that aren’t equipped with ADS-B, and focus your defenders’ attention precisely where it needs to be,” Groppel said. L3Harris said that distinction would be relevant when tracking drones, low-altitude aircraft and cruise missiles in crowded U.S. airspace.
The network already reaches dozens of Department of War facilities, including Air Force bases, naval air stations, Marine Corps installations and Army airfields. “That familiarity, combined with our network reach and our fusion capability, positions L3Harris as a capable partner in homeland defense missions – not as a newcomer, but as an operator who is already there, already trusted and already delivering,” Kreider said.
L3Harris also exchanges ADS-B and radar surveillance data with Canada along the U.S.-Canadian border. The company said the existing relationship and data architecture could support a broader terrestrial surveillance network between the two countries.
“What we’re inviting America’s defenders and those charged with securing the homeland to consider is a head start,” Kreider said. “We have a nationwide foundation that is already performing at mission scale and could be put to work protecting the homeland.”
Source: L3Harris Technologies.
