The Harris Corp. RF Communications Division in Rochester, N.Y., won a $5 million U.S. Army contract to develop an encryption device for future satellite terminals that will be able to operate with military and commercial satellites.

The contract from the Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC) at Fort Monmouth, N.J., is for satellite terminals that are planned to be operational by 2010. With options the contract could be worth $12 million, Harris officials say.

The Harris Sierra II-based Advanced Cryptographic Module will provide the cryptographic core used in ground-based satellite terminals in support of the high data rates and increased information security demands of modern waveforms.

The development is part of the CERDEC-sponsored Programmable Objective Encryption Technologies (POET) Program. “The Sierra II-based Advanced Cryptographic Module solution will be designed to meet the POET program’s immediate need for a robust and affordable programmable encryption solution,” says Dick Rzepkowski, Harris RF Communications Division vice president of government systems and programs.

“The programming simplicity of Sierra II helps to support a fast development schedule. Sierra II also provides significant advantages in size, weight and power over other technologies.” The Advanced Cryptographic Module will work with Host INFOSEC Adapter (HIA) interface hardware and software that will provide a software communications architecture (SCA)-compliant terminal interface and SCA-compliant security services.

The HIA also will provide protocol support for OSI layers 2 and 3 for complex protocols such as HAIPE and LEF. The POET HIA/ACM pair can function in either a Type-1 or non-Type-1 application and will provide legacy and future COMSEC/TRANSEC terminal functionality. For more information contact Harris online at www.harris.com.