Harris wins Army satellite encryption deal

Harris Corp. will help develop an encryption device for the communication security needs of future Army satellite terminals.

The Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, Fort Monmouth, N.J., awarded the $5 million contract to the Melbourne, Fla., company.

The satellite terminals will operate together with military and commercial satellites that are planned to be operational by 2010. The contract ultimately may be worth as much as $12 million, the company said.

The Harris Sierra II-based advanced cryptographic module solution will provide the core used in a variety of ground-based satellite terminals to support the higher data rates and increased information security demands imposed by modern waveforms and newer guidelines.

The advanced cryptographic module will work with host Infosec adapter interface hardware and software, and feature a terminal interface and security services that are compliant with the software communications architecture.

Harris has about 14,000 employees and had annual revenue of $3.5 billion in fiscal 2006. The company ranks No. 22 on Washington Technology's 2006 Top 100 list of the largest federal IT contractors.