Harris moved closer to its delivery goals for the Falcon III AN/PRC-117G tactical radios with MUOS capability after concluding initial interoperability tests on the gadget.

The MUOS, or mobile user objective system, waveform allows the multiband manpack radio to function like a cellphone using an array of geosynchronous satellites, Harris said Wednesday.

The recent test, which demonstrated compatibility between unmodified radios and MUOS software, was run at the Joint Tactical Networking Center MUOS Reference Implementation Laboratory in San Diego, Calif.

The company said a new round of demonstrations will be held at the MUOS system integration labs in Arizona.

George Helm, president of the Defense Department business unit at Harris RF Communications, sees the solution as a tool for the DoD’s transition to tactical satellite radios.

“Simple software upgrades will bring MUOS to more than 30,000 AN/PRC-117G radios already in use, “ Helm said.