MELBOURNE, Fla. L3Harris Technologies has signed a contract worth a potential $593 million that calls for the company to develop passive sensor technology for the U.S. Navy’s shipboard surveillance, detection, and cueing capabilities. 

Under the terms of the contract, L3 Harris will first provide engineering, manufacturing, and development services to the Navy's Shipboard Panoramic Electro-Optic/Infrared (SPEIR) project, according to an announcement from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). 

In its initial solicitation documents from 2021, the Navy is tasking the selected vendor to produce three engineering development models, one partial system for an environmental test and two full systems for use in formal qualification and land-based testing efforts.

The contractor would then manufacture up to 21 SPEIR initial production units and 21 wide and narrow fields of view components of the system after that phase.