L3Harris turns tactical radios into counter-drone sensors

L3Harris Technologies has developed software that turns existing tactical radios into AI-enabled counter-drone sensors, announcing Wraith Shield as a capability that allows soldiers to detect, classify, and disrupt small unmanned aerial systems using communications equipment they already carry, without adding new hardware to an already heavy infantry load.

The announcement, published May 13, 2026, describes Wraith Shield as a software upgrade for L3Harris’s Wraith-capable tactical radio family, developed in partnership with DataShapes AI, a company specializing in edge-native AI for electromagnetic spectrum awareness.

The combined system transforms radio frequency data collected by fielded radios into real-time situational awareness of the drone threat environment, displayed on a soldier’s end-user device and linked to the ability to disrupt drone command links at the press of a button, according to L3Harris’s announcement.

Chris Aebli, President of Mission Critical Communications at L3Harris, described the capability in direct operational terms in the company’s announcement. “Wraith Shield is a prime example of how L3Harris continues to innovate as the Trusted Disruptor in the market,” Aebli said. “It enables operators to disrupt hostile drone signals directly from their radios. With the press of a button, personnel can neutralize attritable unmanned systems, causing them to drop from the sky.” That framing captures the core operational proposition: no dedicated counter-drone hardware, no specialized operator training for a separate system, no additional equipment weight — just a software update that gives radios already worn by soldiers a new and potentially lethal capability against the FPV drones that have defined frontline combat in Ukraine and influenced military planning across the globe.

The Wraith waveform that underpins Wraith Shield is itself a significant piece of context for understanding what makes this capability technically feasible. L3Harris developed the Wraith waveform in the early 2020s as the first wideband, fast frequency-hopping tactical waveform, designed to maintain communications integrity against sophisticated electronic warfare attacks. The waveform is already fielded in operations where users face adversary jamming and interception. Wraith Shield builds on that existing waveform infrastructure to add RF sensing and effects capability, using the same hardware that transmits and receives communications to also detect and characterize drone RF emissions in the local electromagnetic environment.

The initial deployment platform is the RF-9820S Compact Team Radio, also known as the AN/PRC-171, and its embeddable version the RF-9820S-ER, with deployment scheduled for later in 2026. Beyond those initial platforms, Wraith Shield will be available as a future software upgrade for all Wraith-capable tactical radios, including the AN/PRC-158C, AN/PRC-163, and AN/PRC-167. Across those platforms, L3Harris estimates more than 100,000 systems are already fielded by U.S., NATO, Five Eyes, and allied militaries today, per the company’s announcement. The upgrade pathway from existing fielded hardware to Wraith Shield-capable counter-drone sensor is a software deployment rather than a hardware replacement program, which means the scaling potential is measured in the existing radio inventory rather than in new procurement timelines.

Tom Sheehan, Lead of Product Management at L3Harris, articulated why the RF-9820S is a particularly well-suited platform for the counter-drone mission. “It brings sensors to the front line and the tactical edge, because the soldiers already have the body-worn communications systems,” Sheehan said in the announcement. “Further, the frequency bands are very important. The RF-9820S supports operation in the same frequency bands commonly used by most attritable FPV drones. The soldiers who would benefit most from Wraith Shield already carry the equipment needed to use it.” The frequency band overlap between the radio and common FPV drone command links is not incidental — it is the technical foundation that makes the same hardware capable of both communications and drone signal detection and disruption.

DataShapes AI’s role in the system addresses the visualization layer that converts RF detections into actionable intelligence. The company’s GlobalEdge platform processes distributed RF data from connected devices, classifies it using edge-native AI running without centralized infrastructure, and displays the results on soldier devices so operators can see what is operating above them and identify threats in real time. Paul Craft, President of DataShapes AI and a former U.S. Army Chief of Cyber and Electronic Warfare, described the operational significance in the announcement: “This capability closes the gap between sensing and action in a way that directly impacts survivability on the battlefield. By delivering clear, real-time visibility of the electromagnetic environment to the tactical edge, we are giving warfighters the situational awareness and, most importantly, the speed they need to see-sense-shoot and outpace adversaries in increasingly complex and contested environments.”

The integration architecture positions Wraith Shield as a component within a layered counter-drone defense rather than a standalone solution. Rob Mariuz, Director of Product Management at L3Harris, described the system’s role explicitly: “Our new Wraith Shield capability has been designed to seamlessly integrate with and enhance existing air defense systems by adding thousands of distributed sensors.”

Wraith Shield is designed to target smaller FPV drones by disrupting their commercial command links, while larger and more sophisticated systems like L3Harris’s VAMPIRE and Drone Guardian counter-UAS platforms address higher-end threats that require kinetic or more powerful electronic countermeasures. The economic logic is straightforward: spending a significant interceptor budget on a $300 FPV drone is unsustainable at the volumes those drones are being deployed, but a software update to a radio already on a soldier’s chest costs comparatively nothing per engagement.