SCHUMER: L3HARRIS TO MAKE RADIOS UNDER $345 MILLION U.S. ARMY PURCHASE ORDER AS PART OF MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR CONTRACTS; SCHUMER FOUGHT SO L3HARRIS COULD COMPETE FOR MULTI-BILLION CONTRACTS & SAYS WITH AWARD NOW ARMY RECOGNIZES ROCHESTER COMPANY PROVIDES THE MOST DURABLE, DEPENDABLE AND INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY

L3Harris Awarded Two Purchase Orders To Provide Thousands Of State-Of-The-Art Leader And Manpack Radios For U.S. Army; Multi-Year, Multi-Billion-Dollar Contracts Will Boost Economic Recovery Of Rochester & Growth Of L3Harris

Schumer: Contracts Are A Win For Our Troops, L3Harris, And The Rochester-Finger Lakes Regional Economy

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer today announced that L3Harris Technologies in Rochester has been selected by the U.S. Army to manufacture 1,540 AN/PRC-163 (Leader Radio) two-channel handheld radios and AN/PRC-158 Manpack radios under a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) award as part of multi-vendor Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts that Schumer announced in 2016. Specifically, as one of two companies selected by the Army to produce radios under these contracts,  L3Harris will produce 2498 Leader Radios under a $118,700,000 purchase order and produce 2,320 Manpack Radios under a $226,508,661.49 purchase order.

“These well-earned contracts will support jobs at L3Harris, boosting the recovery of the entire Rochester-Finger Lakes region after the economic devastation of the COVID pandemic,” said Senator Schumer. “These continued contracts show that the Army recognizes that L3Harris has proven time and time again that it can make superior radios for the U.S. military and our allies around the world. I was proud to work hard on behalf of this world-class producer of radios, and will always fight for investments that both protect our troops and provide a shot in the arm to the Rochester-Finger Lakes economy.”

Schumer has carried out prolonged pushes for a competitive playing field to allow L3Harris, previously Harris Corporation, to have an equal opportunity to bring innovative work to Rochester which culminated in the Army selecting Harris in 2015 as a suppliers for the Army’s multi-year $3.9 billion IDQ Leader radio contract (formerly named the “Rifleman radio”) and in 2016 as a supplier for the Army’s $12.7 billion IDIQ Manpack radio contract. Harris’ win to supply radios under these two multi-billion dollar contracts followed years of work by Schumer to reverse the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DOD) then-proposed plan to award these contracts to just one company, through a sole-source, single-vender procurement process.  Schumer said the single-vendor selection process would have created an unfair playing field for all vendors, including Harris, to compete. Schumer fought to ensure that a fully open, multi-year, multi-vendor and competitive acquisition process was instituted, so all manufacturers, including L3Harris, would have a level playing field to compete to win these contracts.  Schumer argued that the competition from a fully competitive, multi-vendor process would ensure taxpayers’ get the best-priced radios and the military gets the most technologically advanced radios throughout the life of the contracts.

“I commend Senator Schumer for his support of open competition and our efforts to deliver on a critical need for the U.S. Army,” said Christopher E. Kubasik, Chair and CEO, L3Harris. “This multi-year contract will maintain hundreds of jobs in Rochester and sustain small and large suppliers across New York State that will help the DoD stay ahead of the technology curve.”

Last year, Schumer announced that L3Harris had been awarded $95 million, in addition to the $50 million he announced last year, to manufacture Manpack radios for the U.S. Army. Additionally, Schumer fought for a revolutionary bipartisan omnibus spending package that included $510.7 million for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to help continue building the agency’s next flagship telescope, the Nancy Grace Roman Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), that is being constructed in part by L3Harris in Rochester, with the company building key components like the Telescope and two Aft Optics Assemblies. In November of 2018, Schumer visited Rochester to advocate for this crucial funding for the Roman Space Telescope, and one month later announced that Harris Corp., now L3Harris, had been awarded a $195.9 million contract from NASA to continue the project. Schumer explained that once complete, the Roman Space Telescope will explore an area of space 100 times bigger than the Hubble Telescope, and thus significantly enhance the precision and clarity of NASA’s view into outer space.

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