The task order was from an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract awarded to the company in April for the specific purpose of providing SRW appliqué radios.
This testing is expected to enable the US military to obtain the required Material Release for SRW appliqué fielding. The Exelis SideHat will host SRW, a waveform developed by Exelis that operates in the UHF and L-Band frequency ranges and provides an affordable second channel solution to Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio Systems (SINCGARS) vehicular radio installations.
SideHat was also designed for easy integration and common user interfaces with the widely fielded SINCGARS radio, the primary tactical communications backbone manufactured by Exelis for the Army. SINCGARS with SideHat and SRW delivers a system solution with up to four channels (two SRW and two VHF). It enables dismounted soldiers to communicate with both voice and data to mounted soldiers in vehicles within a larger network.
“The Exelis SideHat provides a robust and efficient solution, built upon existing Army capabilities, to help develop and grow the Army’s future tactical network,” said Nick Bobay, President of the Exelis Night Vision and Communications Solutions division.
“We’ve delivered more than 400,000 ‘SideHat-ready’ SINCGARS radios to the Army and developed the Soldier Radio Waveform. As the developer and producer of these other key network components, we bring a unique capability and skill set needed to deliver and integrate an SRW appliqué into the existing network architecture,” he added.
Since its development, SideHat has been successfully used in multiple operational experiments to test SRW functionality. Those efforts have included the Command, Control, Communications Computer, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance On-The-Move at Fort Dix, New Jersey, the Air Assault Expeditionary Force and Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment at Fort Benning, Georgia, and the Bold Quest Exercise at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
