L3 extends contract for Harris' TVCS

FALLS CHURCH, Va., May 22 (UPI) -- L3 Communications has extended a contract with Florida-based Harris Corp. to support U.S. Marine Corps training technologies.

Under the three-year, $20 million contract extension, Harris will continue to provide products and services for the Marine Corps' next-generation Tactical Video Capture System. Harris' Information Technology Services division will install the TVCS at 15 of the Marines' Military Operations in Urban Terrain training sites in the United States and around the world along with testing the system and supplying all the necessary network hardware.

Officials say the TVCS blends audio and video from multiple cameras, providing situational awareness training for Marines prior to deployment. The TVCS technology is an effort to provide soldiers with training on how to handle a real-life enemy engagement.

"The integration of video from multiple cameras in many locations will provide trainers with both real-time information about the in-progress exercise and recorded three-dimensional views following the event, so they can quickly analyze and act on the information that they see and hear," John Heller, Harris IT Services vice president of Department of Defense operations, said in a statement.

"This type of video training system also has potential benefit in other, non-military applications such as homeland security and emergency response training exercises."