AUSA 2023: L3Harris, Palantir team up on tactical CJADC2 solution

US Army soldiers with 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division conduct qualification exercises on AN/PRC 163 tactical radios at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. (US Army)

L3 Harris is teaming up with data analysis company Palantir Technologies to develop a joint, tactical-level solution to support the Pentagon's Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) capability.

The proposed joint system will leverage several L3Harris battlefield sensor and collection platforms, and have the data move through Palantir's artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled Sensor Inference Platform (SIP) for analysis and synthetisation into actionable intelligence, L3Harris president for communication systems Samir Mehta told Janes .

Company officials at L3Harris envision the solution as a near- to mid-term enabler for the CJADC2 capability, since it will leverage many of the company's existing sensor systems, according to Mehta.

“We're not creating new pipes” for raw battlefield intelligence to be pushed through to higher echelons, Mehta said during the 10 October interview at the Association of the US Army (AUSA) 2023 symposium in Washington, DC.

The family of sensor and collection platforms L3Harris is expected to leverage in the initial variant of the CJADC2 capability include the company's WESCAM MX-10 multisensor, multispectral imaging system in a single line replaceable unit (LRU), as well as the enhanced night-vision goggle-binocular, which is already designed to integrate into the army's Nett Warrior programme, according to company officials.

The company's AN/PRC-163 multichannel handheld radio unit and the Falcon IV AN/PRC-158 dual-channel radio unit will flesh out L3Harris' contribution to the joint programme. All four systems were in use during a small-scale demonstration of the joint programme during the AUSA annual symposium.