"At the cost of a software upgrade … single digit thousands of dollars … you can add this capability to a radio they’re already carrying," Chris Aebli, L3Harris's president for Mission Critical Communications, told reporters.
What Wraith Shield is and how it is delivered
L3Harris has reprogrammed its Falcon IV handheld radios to add a counter-unmanned aircraft system (counter‑UAS) capability called Wraith Shield, the company said. The upgrade requires no new hardware: Wraith Shield is a software addition to the existing Wraith communications waveform, which L3Harris says is compatible with over 100,000 Falcon IV radios already in service worldwide. Company executives said the capability is "ready to be delivered," though international sales are awaiting U.S. export approval.
How the Falcon IV and the Wraith waveform make this possible
Wraith Shield builds on the digital functions already present in modern software‑defined radios (SDRs). To run the Wraith waveform, a Falcon radio must scan the airwaves, identify friendly radios using Wraith, form a local ad hoc network, and transmit signals back. L3Harris and partner DataShapes AI — which trained the AI algorithms involved — use those existing networking and signal‑processing functions as the foundation for counter‑drone operations. The company said the original Wraith waveform was developed in 2022–2023 with extensive input from Ukraine.
How Wraith Shield disrupts drones in the field
L3Harris described Wraith Shield’s operational logic as: identify enemy control signals, share that threat data across the local radio net, and coordinate the radios to broadcast disruptive signals on the same channel. The company characterized the collective transmission as, in effect, "white noise" that scrambles a drone’s control link. Depending on how a given drone is programmed, loss of its control link can lead to different behaviors — circling, automatic return to base, or crashing — L3Harris said.
The current software release can coordinate simultaneous jamming from 40 Falcon radios at once — roughly enough for an infantry platoon — and engineers are aiming to increase that capacity to 100 radios in a future update. Wraith Shield can also forward information about detected drone threats to command posts or to more powerful counter‑drone systems.
Export controls, buying interest, and procurement paths
Although L3Harris said Wraith Shield is ready, international sales are subject to U.S. export approval. Executives reported significant interest both internationally and domestically and said "there’s a handful of customers that are ready to buy it … shortly," though no formal orders had been made at the time of the announcement. Chris Aebli suggested one potential procurement path for the U.S. Army: transferring electronic‑warfare funds to a radio program office and executing the purchase as a radio upgrade, at least initially.
Limits of the capability and its role in a layered defense
L3Harris executives were explicit that Wraith Shield is not a silver bullet. They framed the software as an additional protective layer that individual soldiers currently lack, best employed as part of a larger, layered counter‑UAS defense. The system’s effectiveness will depend on the types of drones encountered and their programming, and its utility is presented as complementary to — not a replacement for — higher‑end counter‑drone assets.
What this means for technologists, procurement leaders, and frontline units
- Technologists and security teams: will be watching how the AI algorithms trained by DataShapes AI identify adversary control signals and how reliably the radios coordinate simultaneous transmissions at scale.
- Procurement leaders and program offices: have a near‑term option to field new counter‑UAS capability through a software upgrade without buying new radios, subject to export controls and potential reallocation of electronic‑warfare funds.
- Frontline units and commanders: could gain a distributed, soldier‑carried layer of protection that is physically present with troops, with immediate effects determined by the behavior of specific drones when control links are disrupted.
L3Harris’s approach underscores a broader shift: the capabilities of software‑defined radios are blurring lines between communications and electronic warfare, allowing new functions to be added via software rather than new hardware. Wraith Shield is positioned as a quickly fieldable, low‑cost augmentation to radios already in soldiers’ packs — ready to deliver at scale if export approvals and purchasing decisions move forward and engineers meet their goals to scale coordination beyond 40 radios.
