Rifleman radio competition heats up.

• Author: Insinna, Valerie
• Position: BATTLEFIELD COMMUNICATIONS

* Vendors could have another chance to score a production contract for the rifleman radio as early as this spring, when the Army opens up the competition before moving to full-rate production.

The Army has so far ordered almost 20,000 radios from General Dynamics Corp. and Thales Group during low-rate initial production, but competitors such as Northrop Grumman Corp., BAE Systems, ITT Exelis and Harris Corp. are hoping to pick up awards of their own.

The handheld rifleman radio, one of the few survivors of the now defunct Joint Tactical Radio System program, can be linked with other electronic devices to send text messages, GPS information and data.

Harris announced in January that it will put up its RF-330E for consideration. Because its radio was launched after General Dynamics and Thales released their versions, Harris was able to incorporate new features into the RF-330E, said retired Army Maj. Gen. Dennis Moran, the company's vice president of Defense Department business development.

The radio has a battery life of more than 14 hours. It uses the same batteries and chargers as its Thales and General Dynamics counterparts, but the Harris radio uses commercial cell phone chips...